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HOW TO 

STUDY CHARACTER; 



OR, 

THE TRUE BASIS 

FOR 



THE SCIENCE OF MIND 



INCLUDING A REVIEW OF 



ALEXANDER BAIN'S CRITICISM OF THE PHRENOLOGICAL 

SYSTEM. 



. BY i/ 

THOMAS A. HYDE. 




NEW YORK: 
FOWLER & WELLS CO., 

753 BROADWAY. 
1884. 



•HI 



copyright, 1884, by 
The Fowler & Wells Company. 



COWARD O. JENKINS. 

Printer and StereotyPer y 

BO NORTH WILLIAM ST., N. V. 



'3Y 



V 

CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Introduction — Origin of the Essay; Its scope and 

aim, 7 

Importance of the Subject — Study of types of 

Character ; History a record of them, . . .11 

Metaphysics, Discursive and Speculative — The 
field of metaphysical inquiry for the most part not 
an exhibition of vague generalities ; The results of 
two thousand years, 13 

"Consciousness" as a Fundamental Principle— 

The succession of theories ; Why they failed, . . 14 

Necessity of Considering Man Objectively — Es- 
sentials to a science of mind ; The process of facul- 
tative analysis ; Memory, 17 

The Incompetence of Metaphysics in Analysis— 
Individuality of talent ; Mental disturbance ; Phys- 
ical function, 20 

The Early Work of the Phrenologists — Opposition ■ 
to their discoveries ; The evidences of anatomy and 
physiology, 24 

The Phrenological Method Inductive — Bain dis- 
inclined to adopt a similar procedure; How Gall 
made his observations, 27 

Difference between the Phrenologists and Ex- 
perimentalists — The school of Ferrier, Goltz, and 
others ; Variations in cranial manifestation explained 
only by natural means 31 

The Brain Examined — Phrenology more than a science 
of the cranium ; The correspondence of the brain's 

development, 35 

(3) 



a CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Are the Methods of the Experimentalists Bet- 
ter ? — The inconvenience of vivisection ; Compara- 
tive results more easily obtained by the observation 
of normal phenomena, 3^ 

Some of the Important Truths of Phrenology— 
Mistakes and illusions of the educated ; A general 
division of mental science, 4 1 

Specialization of Function— The gradation of nerv- 
ous organization in animals; The argument from 
analogy ; The array of data offered in support of 
localized faculty, . . . . . . 44 

Reading Character as an Objection— A Harvard 

professor's objection ; The simplicity of test, . . 48 

The Injustice of Prejudice — Candid examination re- 
sults in belief ; A competent method of investigation 
denned, 5 1 

A Basis laid down for the Study of Character — 
Self-examination must be associated with compara- 
tive observation ; The old and new schools of meta- 
physics ; Advantages of the physical side, , . 53 

The Physiognomical Relation— The language of ex- 
pression ; The chief divisions of the phrenological 
system, 57 

Analysis the Basis of Progressive Science — Types 
of character denned and illustrated ; A science of 
character must be founded on genetic principles, . 60 

Applications and Illustrations— The Social and 
Selfish groups and their respective relations; The 
moral sentiments — selfish and religious aspects ; The 
semi-intellectual group ; The intellectual group, . 62 

The Oratorical Type of Character, an Analysis — 
The qualities of an orator in their elementary com- 
position ; The psychological condition — special en- 
dowments ; Branches or styles of oratory ; Important 
organic requisites ; Demosthenes; Chatham; Chal- 
mers ; Power of language ; Parabolic illustration ; The 



CONTENTS. 5 

physiological side ; The vital-mental temperament ; PAGK 
The vocal powers ; Characteristics of good delivery ; 
Mistakes of elocutionists ; The physiognomical side ; 
Phillips Brooks ; Henry Ward Beecher; Balance of 
Constitution, 67 

Relations of Phrenology to Modern Philosophy 
— The era of Gall and Spurzheim ; Lack of frankness 
among the benefited ; Bain, Spencer, and Darwin as 
doctrinaires in mind, 100 

Influence of Modern Thought — The science of 
ethnology — how advanced ; The study of the " in- 
nate " powers ; Faculties and their action, . . 103 

Natural Language of the Faculties — Combined 

feelings of an opposite kind, 107 

Prof. Bain Discussed — His work "On the Study of 
Character"; Promises an analysis according to 
Phrenology, but does not carry out the intention ; 
His method that of the school of introspection ; A 
seeming injustice ; Bain's objections not new, and 
some of his methods already anticipated, . .109 

Illustrations of Bain's Method — He would ac- 
count for the manifestations of organs by metaphys- 
ical analyses ; Philoprogenitiveness — the well-known 
expression of this organ in animals and man ; Bain 
objects, however, to the employment of observation, 
and would address a series of questions to the con- 
sciousness of mothers ; Positive and negative proof 
not regarded, 113 

Combativeness — Almost persuaded of its proper locali- 
zation; Criticises Combe's definition; Differences 
of expression in different men, . . . .121 

Secretiveness — Bain does not believe it an original ele- 
ment ; Habit and experience ; Confesses that some 
have the disposition to conceal more than others, . 124 

Acquisitiveness — No motives to be assigned in many 
cases for a greedy or avaricious nature ; Kleptoma- 



6 CONTENTS. 

PACK 

nia— can not be a habit generated by surrounding 
influences, 126 

The Omissions of Phrenology — The critic's points 
may mislead ; The muscular feelings ; Erroneous 
assignal of special functions ; Locality, Size, etc. ; 
The vocal powers ; An organ of sympathy? . . 13 l 

Bain's Organs of Elocution and Plot-Interest— 
Testimony of elocutionists ; Effect of special organs 
on the voice ; " Plot-Interest " but the result of fac- 
ulties in combined action ; Principles not to be de- 
nied because of imperfections ; Combe's exposition 
of Conscientiousness ; Impartiality of observation in- 
dispensable to truth; The Fine-Art feelings — rela- 
tion of Ideality and Sublimity ; Bain does not clearly 
define his view of the question ; Power of retentive- 
ness; Effects of training ; A reasonable demand, . 136 

Bain's Own System — His emotional temperament; 
"Spontaneous energy"; Nature of temperament; 
Special emotions ; " Tender emotion," vagueness of 
the term ; Irascibility, 153, 

Concessions of Bain— Their statement ; Mr. Samuel 
Bailey as quoted ; The protest of the phrenologists ; 
Self-conscious investigation not ignored by them ; 
Advantages to be derived from psychology, physi- 
ology, and experimental philosophy admitted ; Lib- 
erality of the phrenologists ; His most important 
admission ; Its significance, 16a 

Conclusion— Province of this essay ; The work and ef- 
fects of Phrenological research in modern thought ; 
The room for further investigation ; Phrenology the 
only science of character 169 



Illustrations— Daniel Webster, Demosthenes, Chry- 
sostom, Cicero, Chatham, Mirabeau, Whitfield, Henry 
Ward Beecher. 



INTRODUCTION. 



THIS essay, which appeared in a condensed form 
in the Phrenological Journal, had its origin while 
the author was a member of the senior class of Harvard 
University in 1881. The Professor of Psychology fur- 
nished a list of topics to the class, requesting the mem- 
bers to select one or more as a subject for a philo- 
sophical thesis. Among the topics enumerated in 
the schedule were : Phrenology and Analysis of Types 
of Character. The author chose these two subjects 
and combined them into one, under the title, "The 
True Basis for the Science of Mind and Study of 
Character." He was influenced in his choice partly 
by the circumstance that many statements regarding 
Phrenology were continually being made, not only in 
class-room, but also outside, by students and profes- 
sors, which he knew, from his acquaintance with 
Phrenology, to be unjust, unreasonable, unwarrant- 
able, and untrue. The essay, as now published, is 
the same as the original, in design, style, and matter, 
with some additions. These additions are mainly to 
be found in the part devoted to Professor Bain. All 
of the section devoted to the " Analysis of Types of 

(7) 



g INTRODUCTION. 

Character" is not to be found in the "True Basis," 
but only the general outline ; and one type discussed 
somewhat in detail, "The Oratorical Type," as an 
example of the utility of studying character according 
to the principles advocated in this essay. The re- 
marks on a True System of Elocution and Oratory,, 
which occur in several parts of the essay, together 
with other philosophical principles, will be found fully 
elaborated in a System of Elocution and Oratory, 
based upon the Analysis of the Human Constitution, 
which the author is writing. The essay, when read 
before the Professor of Psychology, was favorably 
commented upon by him, and he declared that he 
believed there was much truth in Phrenology. 

The scope and aim of the essay is wide and inde- 
pendent. The author has no especial partiality for 
Phrenology. His interest in it has been purely one 
of truth — the desire to obtain the best information 
possible upon a science which he considers next in 
importance to a knowledge of God, the science of 
Mind and Character. Having studied, nevertheless, 
the three great departments of the science of Anthro- 
pology, the Psychological, Phrenological, and Experi- 
mental schools of philosophy, it has been his aim to 
weigh carefully the philosophical principles under- 
lying each, and their importance in founding a science 
of Mind and Character; and whatever his decisions 
have been, they are the result of an impartial spirit. 

The essay is not designed, however, to embrace 
the details of any of these sciences ; but rather seizes 
upon the philosophical principles which, after all, are 



INTRODUCTION. g 

the real basis for any science. It assumes, therefore, 
a knowledge of science and philosophy on the part 
of the reader which may be rather exacting, but 
wholly unavoidable. Any obscurity of matter or 
thought in the essay is due to the necessity for con- 
densation. In such an essay illustrations and quota- 
tions must necessarily be few; the whole spirit of the 
essay is, therefore, that of original reflections and 
suggestions. A criticism upon Professor Bain has 
never been given to the public, as far as the author is 
aware, and he is therefore entirely responsible for the 
whole mode, method, and spirit of the discussion of 
Bain's book on the Study of Character. The same 
might be said of the remarks upon the experimental 
school, and other comments found in the essay. 
That the essay may be read with profit, and increase 
a spirit of earnest longing to know as much as pos- 
sible of the nature and constitution of Man, is the 

author's sincere wish.* 

Thomas A. Hyde. 

Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 18, 1883. 



* An acknowledgment on the part of the author is due to Mr. 
H. S. Drayton, editor of The Phrenological Journal and Science of 
Health, for his kindness in examining the proof-sheets and other- 
wise assisting in the publication of the essay. 



HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; 

OR, 

THE TRUE BASIS FOR THE SCIENCE OF MIND. 



THE study of man, although of the utmost im- 
portance and undoubtedly the most interesting 
of the whole field of human inquiry, has not received 
the careful consideration it justly merits from those 
who aspire to be teachers of men. 

The poet in the warmth of his imagination, the 
historian and the novelist with the accuracy of obser- 
vation, have often described men with their passions, 
animosities, longings, aspirations, and all the various 
feelings which make up the characters of men. But 
their pictures, though vivid, lack the uniformity and 
distinct analysis which should constitute a science of 
character. It is truly wonderful that man has occu- 
pied so little of the attention of those whose peculiar 
duty it was to make him a study. The types of hu- 
man character are so abundant and prominent that it 
seems hardly credible that the science of character 
only dates as far back as the eighteenth century, and 
had its origin with Francis Joseph Gall. True, there 
were attempts to describe and classify men according 

(ii) 



12 HOW TO STUD Y CHARACTER ; OR, 

to their dispositions before the days of Gall, but they 
were so superficial, unsatisfactory, and unscientific as 
to be unworthy of notice. As far back as human 
records reach, the human race has always presented 
types of character unmistakably different from each 
other. The history of every nation and observation 
of the men of our time reveal this fact. Geology, 
which goes back farther than any human record, re- 
veals man as an intelligent being, the tool-maker, and 
even then showing his great superiority over the 
brute creation. History is but the record of types of 
character. There are Nero and Caligula, imbruing 
their hands in human blood to satisfy a savage pro- 
pensity, which forms the principal motive in their 
character. There is Pope Alexander VI., steeped in 
hypocrisy, reeking with the crimes of incest, poison- 
ing, and murder. There is King John, full of blas- 
phemy, foul with unnatural vices, inconstant, fickle, 
yielding before the threat of his barons. There is 
the religious enthusiast, Peter the Hermit, kindling 
Europe into a blaze of religious excitement, compel- 
ling the noble, the powerful, and the weak to leave 
their homes and engage in a long and desperate cru- 
sade. There is Henry VIII., reveling in amatory 
pleasures. There is Lucretia, even in the face of 
death, faithful to her marriage vow. There is the 
philosophic type, buried in deep abstraction — Aris- 
totle, Socrates, and Plato. There is the poetic type 
— Homer, Virgil, Milton, Shakespeare. 

The observation of men of our time reveals the 
same diversity of types. We have brutal murderers, 



THE TRUE BASIS. j$ 

Burke and Hare and Pomeroy; religious fanatics, 
Freeman, Guiteau, and others ; sublime poets, Long- 
fellow, Browning, Tennyson. The student of history 
and observation therefore can not fail to perceive that 
the human race has ever been divided into well- 
marked types of character. 

METAPHYSICS, DISCURSIVE AND SPECULATIVE. 

The neglect to form a science of character is in 
part attributable to the metaphysical school of 
philosophy, which has cared more for idle disputa- 
tions and long-winded discussions upon matters of 
very little importance. Vain theorizing characterized 
the systems of philosophers before the time of Gall, 
who had directed their attention to the study of man. 
It has been the unsatisfactory state of the science of 
mind which has retarded the science of character, for 
as the mind is the foundation of the character, it was 
necessary that its fundamental organs and functions 
should have been analyzed ; for it is by the funda- 
mental powers singly and in combination that all the 
types of character are produced. 

The metaphysician, whose task it was to accom- 
plish this analysis, has given us nothing but vague 
generalities. We are struck with feelings of melan- 
choly regret for the sad waste of time and choice in- 
tellect, when, surveying the whole field of metaphysi- 
cal inquiry, we behold nothing but campaigns of end- 
less battles, interminable disputes, hair-splitting dis- 
tinctions, and the ceaseless warfare of words which 
have ever been its leading features. For more than 



I4 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

two thousand years the best intellects of every period 
have been engaged in such intellectual combat with 
each other, and the field still remains strewn with the 
sad wrecks of fatalism, materialism, transcendentalism, 
and pantheism. What absurd and extravagant doc- 
trines have not had their origin in the minds of those 
who looked to consciousness alone as a guide ! After 
two thousand years of vain speculation, philosophers 
are still on debatable ground ; some maintain that 
there is an external world, others that no external 
world exists ; some maintain that we think and feel 
through material organs, others that the mind is 
ethereal and not connected with the body ; others 
again are divided even upon the fundamental powers 
of the mind. 

" CONSCIOUSNESS " AS A FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE. 

The chief faculty through which they derive all 
their knowledge of the mind has its functional nature 
still under discussion — I mean consciousness. Some 
philosophers maintain that consciousness consists of 
an Ego only, others of a non-ego. Others again as- 
sert that the Ego and non-ego are mysteriously com- 
bined and act as one. Leaving the dispute as to the 
function of consciousness, their principal fundamental 
faculty, still undecided, they carry on long discussions 
with each other respecting what are fundamental 
faculties, the consciousness of one philosopher declar- 
ing that such and such are fundamental faculties ; the 
consciousness of another philosopher as triumphantly 
evolving another set of fundamental powers, in oppo- 



THE TRUE BASIS. 15 

sition to those of his opponents. Some reduce 
everything to sensation and permanent possibilities 
of sensations (J. S. Mill). Others struggle fiercely 
for innate powers ; while others create all the powers 
which form the characters of men by laws of associa- 
tion, attention, and habit. 

The history of philosophy is but a history of a cycle 
of these disputes. One theory arising in one age and 
supported by some eminent thinker is popular for a 
time, then gradually loses its hold upon men and 
glides into the realm of forgetfulness, to be revived 
in another age, only to undergo the same painful 
road of popularity, opposition, and neglect. Meta- 
physicians have no science of the mind. All their 
fundamental faculties rest upon the testimony of each 
individual consciousness, and are subject to its ever- 
varying changes and fanciful modes. They are not 
connected with organs. They have no physical seat 
in brain or body ; without a resting-place, devoid of 
bones and flesh, they have taken up their eternal 
wanderings through the realm of consciousness, in- 
visible spirits, ghosts of the imagination. 

That the systems of mental philosophy are formed 
upon insecure and conjectural bases, is evident from 
the fact that no system has maintained its ground for 
more than a limited number of years. Each age has 
had its distinguished philosophers with their peculiar 
views, and the people of that age have looked up to 
them with awe and respect as the intellectual giants 
of their time. But scarcely has age begun to dim the 
power of thought of these representative philosophers, 



l6 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

when some intellectual prodigy evolves a system 
more in accordance with the time in which he lives, 
and demolishes the doctrines of his predecessors. 
Thus mental philosophy is built upon the shifting 
sands of time, ever changing her fundamental powers, 
now fixing apparently beyond dispute the laws and 
principles of mind, then tearing down the fabric so 
firmly built. The cause of failure of the metaphysi- 
cal school to establish a science of mind and character 
is apparent. Each philosopher has endeavored to 
evolve a science of mind from his own self-conscious- 
ness, and the result has been confusisn upon confu- 
sion ; for each philosopher has only acknowledged as 
fundamental faculties those which were the most 
prominent in his own mind. They scorned an appeal 
to observation ; they shut out the world of things 
and men entirely from their minds ; and instead of 
observing the action of men to find what was in 
others' consciousness, they sought to find the facul- 
ties of mind solely by self-introspection. Once in a 
while they appeal to a blind man or two, to support 
their theories, as, for instance, in the discussion con- 
cerning our knowledge of space ; both those who 
maintain that a knowledge of space is obtained by an 
innate power, and those who assert that it is wholly 
an acquired product, appeal to the experience of the 
blind to support their theories ; but they have never 
made a systematic collection of the facts of nature to 
support and prove their theories, and yet this ought 
to be done in order to arrive at a complete analysis 
of the powers of mind. 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



17 



Suppose, for instance, that the fundamental pow- 
ers could be ascertained by self-introspection, it is evi- 
dent this could only tell half the story, for it is well 
known that men differ widely in mental character 
from each other, so that what one philosopher con- 
siders as fundamental, would only be those qualities 
which happened to be uppermost in his mind at the 
time of his meditations. This is borne out by fact ; 
for a long time the faculties recognized as fundamen- 
tal consisted only of intellectual faculties ; now, it is 
evident that, engaged in abstract thought, and in in- 
tellectual meditation, the intellectual faculties would 
be the uppermost in the mind, hence the faculties 
recognized as forming our mental nature by the meta- 
physician are of an intellectual character. Of the 
other powers which form the characters of men, the 
propensity to fight, to kill, the love of offspring, the 
instinct of propagation, the love of approbation, they 
have said almost nothing. 



NECESSITY OF CONSIDERING MIND OBJECTIVELY. 

The metaphysical analysis of the mind is extremely 
one-sided. If a careful observation of the mental dis- 
positions of others had been considered and applied 
as a corrective to their self-introspective method, 
it would have been more complete. But the meta- 
physician up to recent times has always treated with 
contempt facts derived from observation ; thus set- 
ting at naught the experience of mankind, and ab- 
sorbed in his own selfish observations, it could not 



X 8 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

be expected that the science of mind thus evolved 
would consist of more than vague generalities, and 
flat denials of some of the most evident innate pow- 
ers. The philosophers of this school, in their desire 
to get rid of the objective side of thought, have ap- 
pealed to the subjective side entirely, and thus lost 
the most universal field of proof — the observation 
and experience of mankind. Neither did they escape 
as they hoped the objective side of thought, for there 
is really no such thing as thought without its object- 
ive side. Let any one try, for a moment, to evolve 
from his own consciousness the various faculties of 
his mind, and he will find that before he can form 
any conception of the nature or function of a faculty 
at all, the faculty must be presented to his mind in 
an objective aspect ; and in order that it may be pre- 
sented as an object to the mind, it must present itself 
in one of its distinct modes of activity. The question, 
then, arises to perplex the inquirer: Is the mode of 
activity thus presented the function of one funda- 
mental power or of many? To answer satisfactorily 
this question would require careful reflection upon 
the modes of activity of the various faculties pre- 
sented, from time to time, to self-consciousness. 
Now this process is analogous to the observations 
of nature ; it is a species of mental observation, 
and as such, the analysis of mind thus founded 
will depend for its completeness and accuracy upon 
the skill and range of the mental observations. It 
would therefore appear that observation forms even a 
very important part in mental introspection, and can 



THE TRUE BASIS. 1 9 

not be shuffled aside, as the metaphysician strives to 
do. It is evident also that this kind of mental obser- 
vation, from the very nature of the difficulties which 
surround it, is apt to be extremely one-sided, limited, 
and inaccurate, and stands in need of thorough ob- 
servation of external facts to enlarge and confirm 
any analysis of the mind based upon it. 

The futility of establishing an analysis of the mind 
by the method of self-consciousness alone, appears in 
the various systems of mental philosophy. The dust 
of ages has accumulated upon libraries of books full 
of endless discussions concerning the fundamental 
powers of mind, yet no complete analysis of the mind 
has been attained. Take for instance memory, which 
is recognized by many philosophers as a fundamental 
power. If this be a distinct fundamental power, it 
ought to perform one distinct function, namely, mem- 
ory, and should be able to retain and recall all things 
with equal facility ; but what do we find by actual 
observation of men? That some have good memo- 
ries for events or historical facts, and poor memories 
for figures. Some have poor memories for colors, 
and yet can remember the situations of places with 
facility. So others again can not remember locations, 
but remember numbers. Some remember all the va- 
ried harmony of time and tune, in vocal or instru- 
mental song ; while others with good memories for 
almost everything else, can not distinguish one tune 
from another. This evidently points to powers be- 
hind memory, which are in some cases deficient and 
in others well developed. Memory, therefore, is not 



20 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

a fundamental power, but only a mode of activity of 
fundamental powers. 

The same may be said of conception, perception, 
and imagination. If perception and conception were 
fundamental powers, we ought to be able to perceive 
and conceive of all objects with equal accuracy and 
vividness ; but so far from this being the case, it is 
notorious that there are persons unable to conceive 
or perceive of many, while their perception and con- 
ception of other things are not only good, but intensely 
keen. So with almost every faculty the metaphysical 
school calls fundamental. 

THE INCOMPETENCE OF METAPHYSICS IN ANAL- 
YSIS. 

If we attempt to apply the mental analysis derived 
from self-consciousness alone, to explain the varied 
states of mental phenomena, its incompleteness and 
unsatisfactory condition become at once apparent. 
This analysis can offer no adequate explanation of 
idiocy, insanity, or of partial genius. Nor can it tell 
why some have talents for mathematics, and none for 
poetry ; why one person's soul kindles with oratori- 
cal fire and utters burning words which another with 
equal intellect can not command. It can not tell why 
one man is a clown and another is a consummate 
tragedian ; why one man can express himself with 
ease and facility, and another man with even more in- 
tellectual power can not command sufficient words to 
express his ideas clearly. The metaphysician may 
attempt to account for diversity of talents by habits 



THE TRUE BASIS. 21 

of association, attention, and the force of circum- 
stances, but the observed facts of nature do not sup- 
port their conclusions. 

Individuals have been found to manifest powers for 
music, oratory, mechanical invention, who have been 
brought up in the most unfavorable circumstances, 
and so early in life as to preclude the possibility of 
association, habit, or education having moulded their 
minds in this direction. To enumerate examples 
would only lengthen this thesis unnecessarily. A few 
may suffice. George Bidder, in early childhood, had 
a talent for mathematical pursuits. Pope was only 
one among a thousand poets of whom it could be 
said they " lisped in numbers, for the numbers came." 

It is a well-known fact that youths who apply 
themselves assiduously to the same task and spend 
the same time will, nevertheless, show diversity of 
acquirements. Children brought up in the same fam- 
ily and under the same instruction differ often in char- 
acter and talent. Association, habit, circumstantial 
environment, or any other law of the metaphysician, 
can not account for the diverse dispositions and tal- 
ents of men. 

The metaphysical analysis of the mind is equally 
futile in its explanation of insanity or mental aberra- 
tion and idiocy. In former times, when the self- 
instrospective school had full sway, the soul or mind 
of man was thought to be spiritual, and entirely in- 
dependent of the body ; so, in those days, when men 
had a passion for blood, or were troubled with some 
mental aberration, or a fit of insanity, they thought 



22 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

he must be possessed by some evil demon, and they 
called in a priest to exorcise him. Nor has the meta- 
physical school of our day made much advance be- 
yond this puerile stage of thought. It is still unde- 
cided as to the relation of the body to the mind ; the 
seat of their various faculties still unascertained, they 
can offer no adequate explanation of mental aberra- 
tion, disease, or insanity. When a man is insane, they 
say he has lost the command of his faculties. But 
what faculties, we may ask? for the manifestations of 
insanity are not the same, but even more diverse than 
the manifestations of men in the natural state. Some 
lunatics, for instance, are subject to the most absurd 
delusions, believing themselves to be popes, kings, 
emperors, and other great men. Some believe them- 
selves attended by spirits ; that the Virgin Mary 
awaits upon them, etc. Some are harmless and full 
of kindness, others are possessed with a desire to 
fight and kill, and will tear their fellow inmates or 
keepers into pieces. It would be a long story to enu- 
merate the different phases of insanity. The meta- 
physician can not account for these phases. He 
might say that the mind was diseased, but in what 
place and in what respect, he is unable to tell. 
The intellect of some is apparently sound, and yet 
they are subject to the most ridiculous delusions. 
Why can these lunatics reason intelligently upon 
almost all subjects except the one which is the 
form of their insanity? So useless is the meta- 
physical analysis for any practical purpose, that 
a metaphysician is never called in to pronounce 



THE TRUE BASIS. 23 

a man sound or unsound ; and yet who ought to 
be better able to decide such cases than those who 
claim to have analyzed the mind ? The truth is un- 
deniable, that by self-introspection we can not ascer- 
tain any organ, either of mind or body. No one can, 
by merely thinking or reflecting upon the various 
thoughts or emotions which arise from time to time 
in his mind, tell whether they depend for their mani- 
festation upon material organs or not. The very 
looseness of the phraseology we are obliged to em- 
ploy proves this emphatically. We speak of heart 
forces, of brain power, of the swellings of the soul, 
and such like terms, and yet we do not really mean 
that the heart is the seat of any faculty of the mind. 
Whatever we may be able to ascertain by self-con- 
scious reflection, we can not ascertain the seat of in- 
dividual organs, nor their exact function, nor the 
process by which thought or feeling is developed. 
No knowledge of physical organs was ever obtained 
by the self-conscious method. If physiologists had 
not long ago given up this process and resorted to 
observation and experiment as a basis for reflection, 
we would still be in the vale of ignorance with respect 
to the function of the multitudinous nerves of the 
body. It was only by accurate observation that the 
motor and sensory nerves were separated, and their 
functions ascertained. So, also, with every bodily 
function, experiment and observation were at the 
basis of its discovery. The same law must regulate 
the investigation of the mental functions, if they are 
connected with material organs. We love, we hate ; 



24 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

we are urged by an instinct to propagate our species, 
or an instinct to defend ourselves or property ; but 
consciousness can not tell the seat of these feelings, 
nor has anatomy, in her search for the fundamental 
or genetic faculties of the human constitution, been 
more successful. The brain has been dissected for 
ages, and anatomists have examined its various parts, 
and have failed to find the genetic powers of thought 
or instinct hidden away in its convolutions. No one 
could tell by merely looking at a convolution in the 
brain that it was the seat of instinct, feeling, or 
memory. 

THE EARLY WORK OF THE PHRENOLOGIST. 

When Gall appeared upon the arena of investiga- 
tion into the genetic powers of mind, he found every- 
thing in the mental field in a deplorable condition. 
Philosophers of the introspective school were still 
debating among themselves upon those very faculties 
necessary to form an accurate judgment of anything. 
Anatomists and physiologists were still undecided 
that the brain was the organ of the mind. It is true 
they had partitioned off the brain into a few com- 
partments and had added barbarous names to them, 
but these names indicated nothing but ignorance of 
the function of the parts to which they were affixed. 
Gall had, therefore, not only to combat the erroneous 
analysis of the mind, as given by the metaphysicians, 
but even to revolutionize the science of anatomy. 
He taught the composition of the brain. He proved 
the brain to consist of fibers and cells, and separated 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



25 



the white from the gray matter. When we read the 
account of Dr. Spurzheim's dissection of a brain, in 
presence of the learned anatomists and professors of 
medicine in Edinburgh, we find that so ignorant 
were these professors of the composition of the brain, 
that some of them shook their wise heads and said 
they thought they saw fibers. The theory of the brain 
composition is now a settled fact, yet Gall had to 
combat this point against the learned of his day. He 
taught a more satisfactory method of dissecting the 
brain, a method which undoubtedly laid the founda- 
tion of the present experimental school, at whose 
head are Ferrier, Goltz, and others, yet some of the 
disciples of this school, ignorant of what they owe 
to Gall, are still in the habit of sneering at him and 
his mental philosophy. 

It is not within my province to give an account of 
the discoveries Gall and Spurzheim made in anatomy 
and physiology. I mention these only to show that 
the founders of Phrenology were not unskilled in 
anatomy, as the opponents of Phrenology have as- 
serted. It was the opponents of Phrenology who 
were unskilled in anatomy. All the discoveries in 
anatomy and physiology made by Drs. Gall and 
Spurzheim, and which were bitterly opposed at the 
time, are now acknowledged by the leading anato- 
mists and physiologists to be sound and correct. The 
condition of mental and anatomical science being 
such as we have described, we must acknowledge the 
fathers of Phrenology to be men of rare genius. The 
force of mind which enabled them to break away 
2 



26 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

from nearly all the recognized channels of investigat- 
ing the mind, and seize upon a system of investiga- 
tion which included all the benefits obtainable by 
other methods, and added a means of determining 
the organs and functions of the brain entirely over- 
looked by all who cultivated the science of mind, is 
surely worthy of the name of genius. Their superior 
minds surveyed the whole field of mental inquiry. 
They saw at once the imperfections which necessarily 
followed from investigating the mind by self-con- 
sciousness alone. They saw the futility of anatomy 
unaided by physiology to determine the organs and 
functions of the brain, and formulated a method at 
once simple, natural, accessible, and within the range of 
thorough demonstration ; a method destined to lead 
to a science of mind and character founded upon a 
physical basis. As the truth of Phrenology depends 
upon this system of investigation, I think it neces- 
sary to show in detail, and yet, as concisely as pos- 
sible, the method of proof and its attendant advan- 
tages. Especially do I think this necessary, as Pro- 
fessor Bain, while aided in the composition of his 
works on the study of character by the analysis of 
the human mind supplied by Phrenology, and also by 
the new light thrown upon many obscure physio- 
logical facts by deductions obtained from the phren- 
ological methods ; yet, after examining Phrenology 
and acknowledging its merits and the general truth 
of its inductions, he professes to steer out upon a 
course of self-conscious reflection, to discover the 
fundamental powers of mind. I will not discuss 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



-27 



Bain's work upon the study of character here, but 
will leave it till later, and in the meanwhile go on 
with the method of phrenological investigation. 

Ever since the Baconian philosophy laid down the 
grand principle of first accurately ascertaining facts 
and then drawing inductions from them, the domain 
of speculative philosophy has been growing narrower 
and narrower ; science after science has freed it from 
the trammels of the purely speculative school, and 
established itself upon the solid basis of inductions 
gleaned from a wide field of observation. For ages 
the science of geology offered ample scope to the 
speculative philosopher to engage in endless disputa- 
tions ; but a few men by patient observation of the 
phenomena of nature put to naught all their vain 
speculation, and established a science of geology on 
the basis of induction ; so also the sciences of chem- 
istry and physiology never made any positive progress 
till men of patient inquiry, undaunted by vague the- 
ories, urged with all the vehemence of authority, es- 
tablished them upon the basis of observed facts. 
They constantly observed the various organs of the 
body in activity until they learned their functions. 
If they had merely speculated upon the probable 
function of the heart or liver, they would be specu- 
lating still. Thus every science has progressed in 
proportion as it has been freed from the shackles of 
speculation and guided by the light of observation. 

THE PHRENOLOGICAL METHOD INDUCTIVE. 
Phrenology was an attempt to rescue mental sci- 
ence from the region of speculation, and subject it, 



28 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

like other sciences, to experiment and observation. 
Phrenology claims that it should be investigated ac- 
cording to the principles upon which all sciences hav- 
ing a physical basis are investigated. Bain evidently 
deals unfairly with Phrenology when he declares that 
he is unwilling to follow its long, though correct, 
method in determining what are and what are not 
fundamental powers, and seeks to settle the truth or 
falsity of the phrenological analysis by what he calls 
an appeal to consciousness. No physiologist would 
submit to have the functions of the various parts of 
the body discussed in this way. He would insist 
upon an examination of the observed facts by which 
the functions of the different bodily organs had been 
established. What physiologist, for instance, would 
now submit to a long discussion upon the functions 
of the liver, the kidneys, the heart or lungs, whether 
it were possible that these could perform the work 
respectively assigned to them. Every physiologist 
would, most assuredly, protest against such a course, 
and insist emphatically upon an examination of the 
observed facts of nature ; yet, this is the way the 
modern school of mental philosophy persists in deter- 
mining the merits of Phrenology, which claims to be 
founded upon the observation of physical and mental 
phenomena connected with material organs. 

The method of discovering the organs and func- 
tions of the brain pursued by Gall was similar to that 
which, pursued by the physiologists, led to the dis- 
covery of the different organs of the human body and 
their functions. 



THE TRUE BASIS. 29 

It was a method only such as a genius would ever 
have thought of applying to the discovery of the 
functions of the brain. Thousands had daily observed 
the falling of apples to the ground, but it took a 
Newton to discover, by the application of this fact, 
the universal law of gravitation. Steam had always 
issued from the mouth of a kettle, but Watt saw not 
only the steam, but the power it contained. The 
blood had coursed through the arteries and veins of 
men ever since the creation, but no philosopher of 
the speculative school ever evolved and demonstrated 
a theory of its circulation ; this was the glorious 
achievement of Harvey, by dint of patient observa- 
tion and thoughtful induction. Anatomists, before 
the time of Gall, had dissected the brain by slicing it 
as one would a cabbage, and theorized concerning the 
functions of its various parts, but no system of mental 
philosophy was devised. Men have differed in dispo- 
sition and talent ever since the world began, but no 
philosopher, before the days of Gall, ever clearly 
traced the connection of these dispositions and talents 
with special developments of the 'brain. Much spec- 
ulation no doubt existed before Gall as to the seat of 
the passions, intellect, and emotions, but nothing was 
clearly demonstrated. Many of the erroneous theo- 
ries then promulgated still retard the progress of 
mental philosophy. Gall was the first philosopher 
who conceived the most accessible system of proof 
capable of determining and demonstrating the organs 
of the brain and the dependence of mental manifesta- 
tion upon these organs. The method of his discovery 



30 



HO W TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 



was unique, but wonderful in its results. Who would 
ever have supposed that the form or shape of the 
head, that particular excesses or deficiencies in differ- 
ent parts could tell such a marvelous tale, and settle 
the debatable points which had been discussed for 
more than 2,000 years ? In truth there is still some- 
thing incongruous in the idea of telling a person's 
disposition by the appearance of the skull, and the 
science of Phrenology is even now mirthfully called 
Bumpology ; yet, if we patiently follow the investiga- 
tions of Gall, we will find that the science of Phrenol- 
ogy is not so ludicrous as many suppose. So men 
ridiculed Harvey's theory of the circulation of the 
blood, and no contemporary of his of any renown 
ever accepted or adopted it. Yet so perfect was his 
demonstration, that no essential improvement has 
been made in it, and its universal acceptance is the 
monument accorded to genius. 

But let us see how Gall proceeded. Having gleaned 
from the field of observation facts to show that men 
differed widely in dispositions and talents, he next 
endeavored to ascertain whether these diverse talents 
and dispositions were connected with any physiog- 
nomical development of body or brain. He observed 
that certain parts of the skull were more developed 
than other parts, and he wondered if these developed 
parts might not be a sign of the disposition he had 
observed. How was Gall able, amid all the multiplic- 
ity of human dispositions, to connect one fundamental 
quality with a particular portion of the brain ? There 
lay the Pyrenees to be crossed before success could 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



31 



gleam upon him. Here is one of the principles of 
the phrenological method which the learned have 
failed to comprehend, else they would cease from the 
unsatisfactory, if not the futile, attempt to discover 
the fundamental powers of mind by slicing, cutting, 
and subjecting the brains of animals to shocks of elec- 
tricity. The expedient hit upon by Gall in order to 
separate the dispositions and actions of men and con- 
nect them with special cerebral developments, was as 
follows. 

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PHRENOLOGISTS AND 
EXPERIMENTALISTS. 

He discovered in his investigations that nature had 
performed what the experimental school at the pres- 
ent time vainly tries to perform, namely, to obtain 
negative and positive proofs of the functions of par- 
ticular portions of the brain. The school of Ferrier, 
Goltz, and others is wont to take living animals and 
remove portions of their brains, and ascertain by their 
actions what faculties seem to be lost. They hope in 
this way to discover the functions of the various parts 
of the brain. But Gall discovered that nature had 
already performed this process, for she had given 
birth to men and animals, with portions of their 
brains excessively developed, and the same portions 
in others exceedingly depressed. Gall, by a series of 
observations on men of peculiar and special talent or 
character, succeeded in connecting certain dispositions 
or tendencies with particular portions of the encepha- 
lon. This discovery was of immense importance to 



32 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

Gall, or rather to the science of mind. It was impos- 
sible to get a more extensive field to prove any sys- 
tem of philosophy. Nature had spread out in unlim- 
ited profusion the means of making and verifying 
observations. Not only the human race, but all ani- 
mal life was subject to this method of investigation. 
Neither did time place a limit to these observations, 
for men and animals could be observed, not for one 
day only, but for months and years. The experi- 
mental school can boast of no such opportunities ; 
their labors must necessarily be confined to a few an- 
imals under the effects of anaesthesia, and reluctant 
responses from the fundamental powers of mind can 
only be dragged from them amid scenes of blood, tor- 
por, and stupor. These responses consisting mainly 
of bodily movements, will be interpreted with diffi- 
culty as the signs of the functions of cerebral organs. 
Gall having thus discovered that the talents of men 
were connected with particular portions of the brain, 
he next proceeded to gather a number of skulls show- 
ing abnormal developments and depressions. He 
took casts of the heads of such persons as were noted 
for special talent or traits of character, and also casts 
of those who were deficient in these same traits of 
character, and on comparing them together found 
that the former had certain portions of the brain ex- 
cessively developed and the latter had but a small 
development of the corresponding portions of brain. 
When in many cases he found certain talents or traits 
of character to exist in the person with a particular 
portion of the brain developed, shown by prominence 



THE TRUE BASIS. 33 

or fullness on the skull, he found that the same 
talents were absent or weakly manifested in those 
whose skulls were depressed at the same place. 
When the prominence existed in the other cases, he 
concluded that these traits of character were con- 
nected with a portion of the brain contained within 
the skull. Thus he had proofs both positive and 
negative. 

He did not rest satisfied with the observations of a 
few persons, but extended them to thousands of per- 
sons, making casts and collecting skulls. To extend 
the range of his observations, Gall visited schools and 
colleges, insane asylums and prisons, and wherever he 
had hopes of getting persons distinguished for special 
talents or noted for anything peculiar. Their facul- 
ties were carefully noted, casts of their heads were 
taken, and special development recorded. Thus the 
science of Phrenology was really discovered through 
observations made upon prominences and depressions 
of the skulls, and ridicule was thrown upon Phre- 
nology because its principles were thus discovered. 

But this, instead of being a demerit to Phrenology, 
is its chief glory. If phrenologists had not taken ad- 
vantage of the negative and positive proofs thus sup- 
plied by nature they never could have established a 
science of mind or character. The botanist takes ad- 
vantage of abnormal development in flowers to clear 
up difficult points of morphology, and many im- 
portant truths have been discovered in this science by 
such sports of nature which could never have been 
ascertained in any other way. Nature always sup- 
2* 



34 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

plies means for the ascertainment of truth, although 
these means may seem ridiculous in the eyes of some. 
The trouble too often lies not with nature, but with 
a certain class of scientists who prefer to make an 
abstruse problem rather than follow her plain teach- 
ings. Men may call Phrenology a science of bump- 
ology because its principles were first suggested in 
this way, but it was only by these abnormal develop- 
ments in connection with leading mental character- 
istics that a knowledge of the primitive faculties could 
be discovered ; for it was necessary that the mani- 
festation of one particular faculty should far outstrip 
in power and activity all the other faculties of the 
mind in order to ascertain what dispositions could 
come under that faculty. In other words, some 
means should be supplied whereby the function of 
one organ could be studied to the neglect, for the 
time being, of the functions of the other organs, so 
as to distinguish clearly what were the actions be- 
longing to that organ from the actions belonging to 
the others. And this the great and small develop- 
ment of different parts of the head, called Bumpology, 
conveniently supplied. Yet it ought to be remem- 
bered that although the organs and functions of the 
brain were correctly ascertained, and their sphere of 
action and location discovered by special protuber- 
ances and depressions of the skull, that these pro- 
tuberances can not be found upon all heads. These 
developments are abnormal. The harmoniously de- 
veloped head does not have these special prominences 
on the skull, but there is no difficulty in reading 



THE TRUE BASIS. 35 

character from such heads, as the location of each or- 
gan has been accurately ascertained by means of the 
abnormal developments. 

THE BRAIN EXAMINED. 

Dr. Gall next, when the death of these persons of- 
fered an opportunity to get possession of their heads, 
removed the skull and found that the cerebral mass 
corresponded in every case with the abnormal devel- 
opments of the skull. He found that when there was 
no prominence of the skull, but a depression, the con- 
volutions were small or entirely wanting, and where 
there was a protuberance of the skull, the convolu- 
tions swelled out and completely filled the cavity 
made by the protuberance. Thus the labors of the 
neurologists were at an end ; a resort to clinical and 
pathological or experimental methods was not abso- 
lutely necessary. But Gall and Spurzheim, with that 
indomitable zeal to prove all things beyond a possi- 
bility of a doubt which ever animated their profes- 
sional career, followed up their investigations by 
these methods. It would be a long task to enumer- 
ate the catalogue of cases confirmatory of the loca- 
tion and functions of the various organs they had 
thus established. Injuries to the brain, accidental or 
purposely induced, revealed the fact that the organs 
of the mental faculties had been truly located. Per- 
sons who had received a blow on the part of the 
brain where the phrenologists locate the organ of 
Color were known to be deprived of that faculty. So 
men who had been suddenly possessed with an irre- 



36 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

sistible desire to kill, or to gratify sexual love and 
other desires connected with the primitive instincts, 
were discovered by phrenologists on removal of the 
skull to have the portion of the brain under the skull, 
where the organs of such propensities were situated, 
diseased. Though the organs were first discovered 
by the shape and form of the skull, yet by repeated 
observations the distinct convolutions or parts of 
convolutions connected with special dispositions were 
accurately named and marked out. So that by the 
situation of the convolutions themselves without the 
aid of the skull, the analysis of a person's character 
could be given. Spurzheim gave such readings on 
several occasions. 

The assertion, therefore, of Bailey and other 
philosophers that Phrenology is at best only crani- 
ology, or a science of the cranium, is not strictly cor- 
rect. The phrenologists never attempted to connect 
the dispositions of men with developments of the 
cranium ; they always maintained that the brain 
mass gave size and shape to the skull, and not the 
skull to the brain. This doctrine they proved by 
many facts. They showed, upon the removal of 
many skulls, that the convolutions did not all run in 
one direction, that some of them swelled out more in 
the middle than at the end, some ran transversely, 
vertically and some horizontally and actually mould- 
ed the developments of the skull to correspond with 
these portions. The fact that the size and form of 
the organs of the brain can be predicated by the gen- 
eral appearance of the skull does not necessarily con- 



THE TRUE BASIS. 37 

stitute Phrenology a science of the cranium. The 
size and form of the muscles of the body may be de- 
termined through the skin ; the space which the 
lungs and other organs of the body occupy is deter- 
mined by measurements of their bone or skin cover- 
ing ; but does this constitute physiology a science of 
skinology or boneology? 

But it has been asserted by some writers on men- 
tal science that Phrenology will have to give place to 
the doctrines deduced from the more accurate ex- 
periments of Goltz and others. It has even been 
asserted that if Gall and Spurzheim were now living 
they would give up Phrenology and betake them- 
selves to the experimental school. But this is purely 
a matter of conjecture, and there is nothing in the 
facts of the case to warrant any such supposition. 
That Gall and Spurzheim, if they were now alive, 
would engage in experiments similar to those of 
Ferrier and Goltz, is probable ; but that they would 
decide these experiments to be more efficacious than 
their own method is monstrously absurd. While 
they lived they did not neglect any opportunity 
which they thought would prove or throw light upon 
the science of the mind. They employed the clini- 
cal, pathological, and galvanic experiments which 
gave results similar to those obtained at the present 
time by Ferrier and others; but they employed 
these methods, not because they thought them more 
efficient, but as an aid to their own system, and more 
especially to convince opponents who had a taste for 
such experiments. They always maintained that 



38 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

these methods were insufficient to determine the 
functions of the brain. 

ARE THE METHODS OF THE EXPERIMENTALISTS 
BETTER ? 

The experimental school as conducted to-day offers 
no better method of determining the organs of the 
brain than the phrenological method. In order to 
establish clearly an organ and its appropriate function 
four conditions are necessary : (i) The probable lo- 
cation and size of the organ ; (2) The natural lan- 
guage, action, or process which constitutes its func- 
tion ; (3) It must be experimented upon without 
affecting neighboring organs ; (4) The organ when 
experimented upon must be in a normal condition in 
order to manifest its functions correctly ; and a fifth 
condition might be added, viz., an extensive field for 
experiment and observation, which, although not as 
necessary as the four previous conditions, would seem 
requisite because of the vital importance attached to 
the deductions from the experiments. The experi- 
mental school, it is needless to say, can not comply 
with any of these conditions. They neither know 
the extent nor location of the organs they seek, 
whether they occupy a whole convolution or a part 
of a convolution as they experiment upon the con- 
volutions in a hap-hazard manner. They have not 
systematically studied the language or processes of 
the organs they seek ; hence their ridiculous inter- 
pretation of the responses they have obtained. They 
have exhausted the entire cerebral mass in the per- 



THE TRUE BASIS. 39 

formance of such ridiculous functions as a center for 
wagging the tail, a center for the advance of the right 
foot, a center for twitching the eyes, which latter 
they call the organ of sight. They experiment under 
very disadvantageous circumstances. They have re- 
course to anaesthesia, which puts the organs of the ani- 
mal in an unnatural stupor. It is not, therefore, possible 
to get the clear responses which express the function 
of an organ in the natural state. It is hardly pos- 
sible to excite one organ by the electrode without 
exciting jsl neighboring organ. And it is extremely 
doubtful, nay, impossible, to get anything but bodily 
movements from these organs in such a condition 
and by such a process. How can thought, intellect, 
or emotion be communicated in this way? Indeed, 
the science of the mind, as presented by these ex- 
perimentalists, is nothing more than a science of elec- 
trical gymnastics. The cutting and mutilating of 
innocent animals to acquire a few gesticulations and 
twitches of the body and limbs, is, to say the least, 
reprehensible, and contrary to the best feelings of 
our fruman nature. The reader can easily imagine 
how difficult it would be for an animal subjected to 
stupefying drugs and deprived of parts of his brain 
and irritated by shocks of electricity, to express the 
various faculties of his mind. The extent of the field 
of experiment is confined to a few animals, and the 
experiments must be performed and the responses 
obtained before the animal dies. If these gymnas- 
tical performances and the ridiculous interpretations 
drawn from animals in stupor and mutilation, by a 



4<D HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

process revolting and unnatural, are capable of super- 
seding Phrenology, I should like to see the evidence. 
If the experimenters had taken Phrenology as an aid 
they would have been more successful ; they would 
then have had some idea of the extent, location, and 
language of the organs for which they were in search. 
Even supposing that they could succeed in determin- 
ing the functions of the brain in this way, they .can 
only extend their conclusions to man by analogy, for 
public sentiment will never submit to have men 
experimented upon as they now experiment upon 
animals. 

So far from the experimental school superseding 
Phrenology, it has much to do before it can arrive at 
any one of the demonstrated principles of Phrenol- 
ogy. In many cases the responses obtained by Goltz 
and Ferrier, when rightly interpreted, support the 
doctrines of Phrenology, and one of the latest an- 
nouncements of Ferrier is that the phrenologists have 
good reasons for locating the intellect in the frontal 
lobes. 

Not any of the inconveniences attending the, ex- 
perimental method is incident to the phrenological. 
Its field of observation is wide ; men and animals in 
their natural state are its objects of investigation. 
All the actions and language of the faculties can be 
gathered and systematically arranged. It knows 
the position and extent of the organs it seeks. 
It can summon the clinical, pathological, anatom- 
ical, and even the experimental school itself, to 
support the truth of its principles. The superiority 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



41 



of its methods is shown by the fact that it has al- 
ready mapped out the convolutions of the brain into 
distinct organs and described their functions, and has 
built up a science of mind and character upon prin- 
ciples not yet disproved. Gall, like some other 
geniuses in other departments of knowledge, has 
mapped out the field of mental science so exten- 
sively that it will take a long time for men of moder- 
ate talents to reach the utmost lines of his demon- 
stration. Much, no doubt, remains to be done. 
Phrenologists never claimed that their science was 
complete in all respects. Yet the survey has been 
made and the true road to travel is open, and, like 
the railway, may have steel rails in due time. 

Phrenology being founded upon inductions from 
observed facts demands our investigation of these 
facts, and disclaims to be investigated by self-con- 
sciousness alone. It is surprising that the gauntlet 
thus defiantly thrown down by phrenologists has 
never been taken up. 

SOME OF THE IMPORTANT TRUTHS OF PHRE- 
NOLOGY. 

Before proceeding to show the value of Phrenology 
as a means of analyzing types of character, it may be 
well to take a brief survey of some of the important 
truths which Phrenology has added to the science of 
mind. Especially do I think this necessary because, 
even here in this school of learning (Harvard College), 
we are wont to speak of many of the truths of the 
science of mind as if they were but lately discovered 



42 



HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 



by modern scientists. It is always a disagreeable 
task to dispel pleasant illusions, but it is sometimes 
very necessary, when men become over-confident of 
the value of their own individual investigations. I 
will have something further to say upon the sub- 
ject of appropriation of phrenological discoveries 
without acknowledgment, toward the conclusion of 
this essay. 

The first principle which Gall and Spurzheim main- 
tained, and which was bitterly opposed on all sides, 
was that the mind is dependent for its manifestation 
upon material organs, and that the brain was the 
principal seat of the mind. It is surprising to read, 
when we reflect how universally this fact is admitted 
at the pres:nt time, that Gall had to avail himself of 
every resource to prove his position, and brought to 
bear against his antagonists accumulations of facts 
both psychological, anatomical, and physiological, 
which completely established the phrenological view 
and annihilated those of his opponents. It does not 
fall within my province to give the proofs for the 
mind's connection with the brain, and it is hardly 
necessary, as nearly all scientists acknowledge this 
truth. They differ only in the method of the brain's 
manifestation of mind, whether the brain is composed 
of cells, and each cell is responsive to a particular 
shade of emotion or thought, and manifests that 
emotion or thought when excited by the popular 
stimuli ; or that the brain, as a mass, moves its bulky 
weight every time to give rise to thought or emotion. 
Phrenology claims that there are two grand divisions 



THE TRUE BASIS. 43 

of the brain mass, and that each hemisphere may act 
independently of the other or consentaneously to- 
gether. This is only following the general analogy 
of the bodily constitution, for we have two eyes 
which may see objects independently or at the same 
time ; so also with the organs of hearing. This truth 
is now admitted. The phrenologists affirm that there 
are distinct mental faculties, each having a cerebral 
organ in each of the hemispherical lobes. This truth 
has been debated with great rancor, but according to 
phrenological proof it is as truly demonstrated as is 
the truth of the mind's dependence upon the brain. 
It is further maintained that power of manifestation 
depends {caeteris paribus) upon the size of the hemi- 
spheres, and upon the size of each individual organ. 
Upon these principles a science of mind and character 
has been built up which may be divided into divis- 
ions as follows : (1) A system of Psychology, having 
for its basis primitive or fundamental faculties, with 
a description of their nature, function, sphere of oper- 
ation, and their relations to each other. (2) A system 
of Physiognomy, founded (a) upon the form of the 
skull, as determined by the size and form of the cere- 
bral mass, or particular portions of it measured in 
radial distances from the medulla oblongata; (b) upon 
the natural language of the feelings and faculties as 
displayed in the actions, expressions, and attitudes of 
men. (3) A practical sociology, or the application of 
the system of psychology and physiognomy in con- 
nection with principles of cerebral physiology to the 
welfare of society and the ordinary business of life. 



44 



HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER : OR, 



The psychological part of Phrenology might be di- 
vorced from the physiognomical and physiological and 
studied as a separate system, and it appears to have 
superior advantage over all other psychological sys- 
tems. Let us see what it offers to science to-day. 

(i) It has been determined by observation and re- 
flection that there are distinct faculties, and that the 
brain is the organ of the mind, and has a seat for each 
individual faculty. I will not attempt to give the 
numerous phrenological proofs for this statement, 
but will content myself by showing, analogically, that 
it is quite possible that mind is manifested, not as a 
unit, but by a plurality of organs. In our investiga- 
tion of animal life we have found a dependence of 
mind upon cerebral structure. Every year new facts 
are added to prove a plurality of cerebral organs. 
All animal life is a progress on the plane of 

SPECIALIZATION OF FUNCTION 

from the lowest to the highest, and has its culminat- 
ing point in man ; the more distinct and separate the 
organs through which the functions are performed, 
the higher and more intelligent is the animal. If we 
trace animals back to their lowest forms, we discover 
but little appearance of separate organs for special 
functions. The next grade probably reveals a stom- 
ach, or something resembling digestive organs. Then 
the next grade has special parts of the body devoted 
to special functions ; for example, the breathing or- 
gans become distinct from the digestive, the eye from 
the ear, and the organs of voice from the organs of 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



45 



smell. In the highest animal, man, there is the great- 
est specialization of function. There is a distinct or- 
gan for everything — the eye, the ear, the sense of 
smell, are all distinct. The functions of the liver, the 
stomach, the heart, have all separate organs. Nay, it 
has been discovered that the nerves which ramify 
through the body and lie in bunches beside each 
other and are almost undistinguishable in form, have 
apparently the same texture and composition, yet 
perform different functions. In the same sheath, 
side by side with each other, are the nerves of mo- 
tion and feeling. It is extremely absurd to conceive 
the brain, which is a collection of fibers, cells, and 
nervous ganglia in convolutions, acting as a unit, 
and moving its entire bulky mass every time a 
thought or emotion agitates it. This is a direct con- 
tradiction to all we know of the body in general. It 
would seem as if nature began on a line of harmo- 
nious differentiation of structure, which she carried 
through the whole body as far as the medulla ob- 
longata and ended there, giving up the idea of differ- 
entiation after having tried it through all stages of 
life, from the oyster to man, as a bad business. Is it 
not more in accordance with her general plan to sup- 
pose that differentiation of structure is also charac- 
teristic of the encephalon? that feelings so distinct 
as anger, love, sense of causation, sense of mathe- 
matical relation, of colors, of space, of self-esteem, of 
construction, can not all be performed by the brain 
mass acting as a unit? 

In the light of modern science, then, Phrenology 



46 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

still can maintain her doctrine of plurality of organs, 
and every new fact added seems to support that con- 
clusion. In the days of Gall and Spurzheim this ana- 
logical proof could not be so successfully used as at 
present, for there has been much information gath- 
ered from the investigation of the animal life which 
did not then exist ; but, nevertheless, the early fa- 
thers accumulated a mass of evidence which proves 
conclusively the doctrine of the plurality of organs. 
It is my endeavor not to repeat old arguments in 
favor of Phrenology, but to view that science in the 
light of modern research, and to show that Phrenol- 
ogy has still strong claims upon us as a means of in- 
vestigating the science of character; and, indeed, it 
holds a place in this department of knowledge which 
can not be filled by any other method of investiga- 
tion. Since, therefore, it is not my aim merely to 
quote and apply arguments from phrenological works, 
but rather to give a series of original reflections upon 
the truths of Phrenology, I beg to refer the reader to 
the works of Gall, Spurzheim, Combe, and the later 
phrenologists, for the solid array of facts which they 
have accumulated to prove their principles. The ques- 
tion has been agitated whether the phrenological ter- 
minology founded upon the classification of the mind 
is of value to-day. It would appear needless to discuss 
this question had not Bain and others attacked it, and 
endeavored to show that it was erroneous and faulty 
in many respects. Whatever defects there may be in 
the definition of the functions which the terminology 
conveys, nevertheless modern science has not given 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



47 



us a better terminology. When a modern philoso- 
pher shall arise and gain for his terminology such al- 
most universal acceptance in current literature and 
popular language as the phrenologists have gained, 
Jje will be in a position to dispense with the phreno- 
logical terminology. As the case now stands, after 
years of carping criticism and systematic attack by 
the learned, men can find no better means of describ- 
ing the various types of character than by the use of 
phrenological language. 

Again : if we view Phrenology in the light of mod- 
ern science, we find it has many other strong claims 
upon us. The exposition of the primitive powers of 
mankind which Phrenology has given, has made it a 
science of the utmost practical importance. Educa- 
tion which is not conducted upon its principles with 
reference to the various degrees of development of 
the primitive powers, can not be complete and satis- 
factory. Phrenology maintains that a harmonious 
development of all the powers should be the true 
aim of education. If, for instance, a person is found 
with any particular organ excessively developed, as, 
for example, a person in whom Destructiveness — the 
excessive manifestation of which is the desire to kill — 
is out of proportion to his other faculties, all the cir- 
cumstances which are liable to excite that organ must 
be removed, and those organs which restrain the 
promptings of Destructiveness must be educated. 
So with all the faculties, the weak must be cultivated 
and the strong restrained, unless it is desired to make 
the person a specialist in the direction of the strong 



48 HO W TO ST UD Y CHARA CTER ; OR, 

faculty. It is evident that any science which is able 
to point out the connate tendencies of men, will have 
a vast influence upon the education and legislation of 
men. If the various capabilities or innate capacities 
of men are thus unfolded, a sure foundation for the 
study of character is laid. This science of character 
will not culminate merely in a theoretical science, but 
like all other sciences which are founded upon physi- 
cal facts, will lead to an art — namely, the art of read- 
ing the characters of men. This has actually been 
accomplished ; yea, while the metaphysicians are still 
discussing the genetic powers of mind, or rather their 
boasted power, consciousness itself, through which 
they claim to have given a correct analysis of the 
mind, Phrenology, undaunted by the long discussions 
of alarmed opponents, has been slowly and surely per- 
fecting the science of mind and character. 

READING CHARACTER AS AN OBJECTION. 

An objection has been made to Phrenology, even 
by the present professor of psychology in this univer- 
sity (Harvard), that Phrenology is not a science of the 
mind, but merely an art of reading character ; but of 
all objections made against Phrenology this is the 
weakest. Is the science of medicine less of a science 
because it has given rise to the art and practice of 
medicine? Is geology less a science because from its 
principles practical geologists can survey tracts of 
country and draw geological maps and write reports ? 
If that objection holds good against Phrenology, it 
applies with equal force against every science which 



THE TRUE BASIS. 49 

has its principles so well defined that they can be put 
into practice, for an art is only applied science. This 
objection, instead of being an argument against Phre- 
nology, is the crowning proof that its principles are 
derived from nature itself.* No vain theory of the 
imagination has given birth to her mental delinea- 
tions. In the crowded hall, in the street, on the plat- 
form, in schools and seminaries, in insane asylums, in 
prisons, on convict ships, in churches or in the thea- 
ter, and among the most barbarous and civilized peo- 
ples of the world, its principles have been tried and 
failed not. Can any of her sister sciences — metaphys- 
ics and experimental philosophy — show an equal 
record ? No, they have not yet accomplished a pre- 
cise and complete analysis capable of unfolding a sci- 
ence of art and character. That Phrenology is an art 
is no objection, but her chief triumph, proving her 



* It is only just to mention that the professor of psychology be- 
fore whom this essay was read, since the reading of the essay has 
explained that by his assertion that Phrenology was not a science, 
but merely an art of reading character, he did not mean an art 
in the real and true sense — as an art of medicine, etc. — but sim- 
ply an art in its degraded sense, as applied to fortune-telling, as- 
trology, etc. It would have been well if he had given this defini- 
tion of art to his students in class assembled, as his words then 
conveyed a condemnation of Phrenology as an art in the true 
sense of the word. It does not seem possible that the professor 
of psychology, after a careful reading of the works of Gall, Spurz- 
heim, Combe, and Bain, which he says he read with great inter- 
est, could entertain so low an estimate of Phrenology, especially 
as Prof. Bain, who is not at all partial to Phrenology, admits it to 
be a science of character as well as an art. 



50 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

principles to be as sure in their operation as the laws 
of nature. How, in the name of common sense, could 
the principles of classification and cerebral develop- 
ment be erroneous, if men can by their means pick 
out all the types of character, and analyze them so 
successfully that thousands will admit the correctness 
of their delineations ? Phrenologists are not afraid of 
their science ; they have always sought, nay, en- 
treated, begged, and demanded investigation. The 
conduct of Gall, Spurzheim, Combe, Vimont, Cald- 
well, Elliottson, and the Fowlers proves this. They 
have selected prominent men, men whose char- 
acters were known to the public, and have appealed 
to them to witness the truth of their science ; they 
have shown upon every occasion that the cerebral 
development corresponded to the mental manifesta- 
tions. The heads of persons unknown to them have 
been given, whose characters they have successfully 
read. Any person is at liberty to decide for himself 
the truth of their propositions. It would be an easy 
matter to put Phrenology into the crucible and try it. 
Take any one of the many persons whose characters 
phrenologists have claimed to have analyzed, and 
show that the analysis is incorrect ; this would do 
more to convince the public of the falsity of phreno- 
logical principles than all the long-winded discussions 
of the metaphysical, and the rash assertions of the 
experimental schools. But this has never been done, 
and I am convinced it never will be accomplished. 
For many years the science of mind and character, 
as revealed by Phrenology, has been before the pub- 



THE TRUE BASIS. $i 

lie, and the learned have either ignored its claims by 
appeals to the mirthful tendencies of human nature, 
or have misquoted its teachings and principles. 

THE INJUSTICE OF PREJUDICE. 

The demand made by phrenologists that their sci- 
ence should be investigated according to the princi- 
ples they have laid down, has never been complied 
with by the opponents of Phrenology. If this de- 
mand were complied with the opponents would be- 
come fewer and fewer, and finally disappear alto- 
gether, or begin to waste their strength and delay the 
progress of truth in some other department. I speak 
this as no mere rhetorical flourish, but from historical 
facts. It is a circumstance strongly in favor of Phre- 
nology, that all those who have made a thorough in- 
vestigation of its principles according to the natural 
rules laid down by phrenologists, have ended in belief 
in the science. To give names would only encumber 
unnecessarily this essay. If any one wishes to prove 
the truth or falsity of Phrenology, let him pursue the 
following method of investigation : (i) Clear your 
mind fully of all preconceived theoretical opinions 
originated by the self-introspective method as to the 
impossibility of founding a science after the manner 
of Phrenology. (2) Keep your mind freely open to 
receive truth, even if it is new and not recognized by 
the members of the conservative schools of thought 
who wear their professorship cowls within the walls 
of many of our universities because they have given, 
in their college career, good proof of their orthodoxy. 



52 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

(3) Remember that schools and colleges have not gen- 
erally received new truth, but have oftentimes been 
the first to oppose it. (4) Remember, also, that prin- 
ciples which have long been taught may be false, even 
if professors of ability maintain them ; in other words, 
authority is no criterion, truth must be decided in the 
crucible of mental conflict and experiment. (5) Do 
not hastily conclude that a whole science is false be- 
cause one or more of its principles seem founded upon 
a wrong basis ; this is often exemplified by the oppo- 
nents of Phrenology ; some are ready to consign the 
whole science to the region of forgetfulness, because 
they think they have found one or more errors in the 
system — as, for instance, you know the frontal si- 
nuses, even if they are only an inch and a half or so 
wide, have the expansive power of rubber, and may 
cover the entire brain, so that it is utterly impossible 
to measure any organ when you can not measure one 
or two. That is, you know, Edinboro' and Boston 
are so intimately connected with each other, that the 
covering of a few houses in the first city by a drift of 
sand or snow would completely cover all Boston, and 
nobody could find his own house. (6) Never surren- 
der truth, or your convictions of truth, through fear 
of not being on the side of your professor, and thus 
lose that delightful criterion of human scholarship, 
that adjustable gauge by which professors assure them- 
selves of the brilliant lights of the school if not of the 
world — you know what I mean, those ominous things 
which make a man's heart tremble about examination 
time — Marks ! Marks ! It would be well, also, to 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



53 



bear in mind, in all your investigations, the following 
definition of a faculty : (i) A faculty is admitted as 
primitive (a) which exists in one animal and not in 
another ; (b) which varies in the two sexes in the same 
species ; (c) which is not proportionate to the other 
faculties of the same individual ; (d) which does not 
manifest itself simultaneously with the other faculties ; 
(e) which may act or rest singly ; (/) which may be 
propagated distinctly to offspring ; (g) which may 
singly preserve its proper state in health and disease. 
To the classes of this definition of a primitive faculty 
no objection can be made, says Professor Bain, and 
yet he will not follow such a method because too la- 
borious. I shall have occasion to discuss Professor 
Bain presently. 

A BASIS LAID DOWN FOR THE STUDY OF CHARACTER. 

In order to establish a science of character, we 
ought to study man as he presents himself to us. 
Observation, which is the foundation of all that is 
permanent in every science, is even of more impor- 
tance in the science of character. Men differ so 
widely from each other in character and mental qual- 
ities, that it is impossible to build up a science of 
character from self-introspection unaided by observa- 
tion. Yet self-introspection can do much more for 
the science of character than she has done in the past. 
If the philosophers of this school had made themselves 
the subject of the closest observation and introspec- 
tion ; if they had noted down their various actions, 
modes, feelings, and the conflicting passions which at 



54 HO W TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

times stirred their bosoms ; if they had extended 
these observations and reflections into a period of 
years, not for a few moments only, not solely when 
in tranquil and thoughtful states of mind, but at all 
times, in calms and in passionate moods alike, a more 
satisfactory analysis of their own character would 
have been accomplished. Nevertheless, this would 
only be half of the science of mind and character, and 
would lack wide and definite proof ; and, besides, 
since men differ in dispositions and mental qualities, 
in order to get a complete science of character men 
in every condition and of individual traits of charac- 
ter must be observed. After the facts were collected 
deductions could be made from them, and a correct 
analysis of mind and character obtained. This might 
be called the psychological part of the science of char- 
acter, but still this process alone would not lead to a 
complete analysis of human character. If mind is 
connected with the brain and body, the seat of the 
fundamental powers which lead to the differences of 
character ought to be discovered. The size and qual- 
ity of these organs (if any material organs are discov- 
ered) and the conditions of their activity should then 
be investigated. This would lead to organology, or 
the physiological side of man's character. This is by 
far the most important part of the subject. Physical 
facts, when once established, are not easily disproved. 
If the seat of a function has been ascertained, many 
opportunities are opened for watching its manifesta- 
tions, for these can readily be noted from time to 
time, and their degrees of power and activity meas- 



THE TRUE BASIS. 55 

ured. The proof of an organ or of a fundamental 
power is then capable of thorough demonstration, for 
a certain function being always connected with a par- 
ticular organ, the function infers the organ and the 
organ infers the function. It is because the meta- 
physical analysis of the human mind has no physical 
side that it is so unsatisfactory. Built upon mere 
speculation and connected with no particular part of 
our organization, the mind has been discussed and 
analyzed by metaphysicians as if it had already 
broken loose from its physical environment. The 
consequence has been, and will ever be, endless dis- 
cussions concerning the very existence of primitive 
powers. Could the metaphysical thinker point to 
the seat of any one of the faculties he has analyzed, 
its existence could no longer be disputed. The ques- 
tion of innate and acquired powers could then be 
solved. But not having done this, they have re- 
sorted to such laws as the law of association, habit, 
attention, etc., to account for all the various disposi- 
tions of men. 

What I have just said applies both to the old and 
new school of metaphysics. The modern only dif- 
fers from the old school in the principle by which 
they evolve their conclusions. The old school 
sought to arrive at an analysis of the mind by des- 
perate efforts to evolve fundamental powers from 
their own minds, and ignored entirely physical data ; 
the new school simply differs in that they make 
physical data correspond to their own internal cogi- 
tations. Professor Bain belongs to the new school of 



56 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

psychologists, and his discourses on the human mind 
consist mainly of muscular association spread out as 
thin as molasses, by which he attempts to create 
such primitive powers as the perception of space, 
locality, size, etc. But laws can not create faculties — 
they are merely the explanation of how the faculties 
act. The laws themselves depend upon the faculties 
behind them. They depend for their very existence 
upon the very powers they attempt to create. The 
laws of association, habit, etc., give much information 
respecting the method by which the fundamental 
powers act, but although they may discipline such 
powers they can not create them. 

The physical side of investigating the mind and 
character offers still other advantages. When we 
know the seat of an organ and its manifestations, we 
can predicate each in the absence of the other. Thus, 
for instance, when the lungs are largely developed we 
can predicate, all other things being equal, great 
breathing power, and so when the stomach is present 
we may confidently assert that the powers of diges- 
tion will be manifested. Should both these organs 
be absent, we can declare that breathing and diges- 
tion, according to animal processes, will not be mani- 
fested. So the phrenologist, having ascertained the 
physical seat of the various fundamental powers of 
the human mind, is enabled to predicate the func- 
tions of each. Thus, for instance, if it has been as- 
certained that the disposition to fight or defend 
oneself is connected with a physical organ for its 
manifestation, then when that organ is present we 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



57 



can confidently assert that the instinct of defense will 
form an element in the character of those possessing 
that organ. Thus Phrenology shows that in those 
animals which are pugnacious in the assertion of their 
rights, as, for instance, the cock, the organ of Com- 
bativeness is largely developed ; and in those animals 
which have no disposition to defend themselves by 
resistance, as, for instance, sheep, the organ of Com- 
bativeness is deficient. When a science is thus found- 
ed upon a physical basis, it always advances out of 
the misty regions of speculation into the clear light 
of demonstrated facts. 

THE PHYSIOGNOMICAL RELATION. 

In the study of character there is still another side 
►to be considered, which may be called the physi- 
ognomical side. Men and animals express their feel- 
ings, passions, and thoughts in their faces and by 
bodily attitudes. These expressions become so fixed 
that the lines on the face announce what has been 
the ruling passions of an individual's life, as surely as 
the hands of a clock indicate the hours on the dial- 
plate. Behold the graceful curling lines on the 
cheeks above the mouth indicating the mirthful and 
happy character! On the other hand, behold the 
graceful lines are flattened and the cheeks drawn 
down in the morose and gloomy dyspeptic. No one 
could fail to tell by the look of a man, when he was 
angry, sad, or kind. All the various emotions, in- 
stincts, and passions have their language, which a 
practical observer can read as easily as the alphabet. 
3* 



58 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

The tones of the voice, the scowl, the sneer, the ges- 
tures of the head and body, reveal much of man's 
inner nature. A systematic study of this language of 
the passions should be made if a science of character 
is to be established. Where is the science of mind or 
character which has thus surveyed man from all these 
points of view? Not metaphysics, not psychology, 
not the experimental school, but Phrenology, con- 
temptuously sneered at because she has so studied 
man. Her investigations have always been conducted 
on the broad principles of psychology, physiology, 
and physiognomy, and the result has been wonderful. 
It has led to a science of mind having a physical 
basis, and which, although not complete, has given 
an analysis of the genetic powers which no other 
science of the mind has accomplished. « 

I have not space to give in detail the phrenologi- 
cal analysis of mind and character, yet it seems neces- 
sary, before proceeding further in our inquiry re- 
specting the bearing of Phrenology upon the analysis 
of types of character, to give a general outline of its 
classification. 

Gall and Spurzheim arranged the faculties of the 
mind in two orders, corresponding to the feelings and 
intellectual powers of the metaphysician, named 
respectively the affective and intellectual faculties. 
The feelings were divided into two genera, the pro- 
pensities and sentiments. A propensity is an internal 
impulse — in common language an instinct, which im- 
pels only to certain actions. A sentiment is an in- 
ternal impulse, with an emotion superadded — in com- 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



59 



mon language, an emotional instinct. The propensi- 
ties and sentiments have various degrees of activity, 
from a simple elementary impulse to the most ex- 
cited outburst of feeling, which is called passion. 

The phrenologists also recognize the truth which 
the present psychological school asserts, that even the 
intellectual faculties are of the nature of instincts. 
Thus, to seek the causes of phenomena, or to com- 
pare and classify things, are the instinctive prompt- 
ings of the intellectual faculties of Causality and 
Comparison. It seems to us that the phrenologists 
have here anticipated a great truth, which will in the 
end break down the hitherto rather sharp distinction 
made by psychologists between the intellectual and 
the other faculties of our nature. It has been their 
principle all along to ignore the testimony of the 
feelings and emotions as merely instincts, and, there- 
fore, untrustworthy ; but if the intellect is proven to 
be also instinctive, surely, then, the feelings and 
emotions are as trustworthy in their own sphere of 
action as the intellect. 

The intellectual faculties are subdivided into per- 
ceptive and conceptive or reflective faculties. These 
are the grand divisions of the phrenological exposi- 
tion of the human mind, but each of these divisions 
has many individual faculties under them. I will 
now proceed to show, in a general way, the applica- 
tion of the phrenological analysis of mind to the 
study of character. I have said before that the meta- 
physical analysis of mind was inadequate to establish 
a science of character because of its one-sidedness. I 



60 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

shall not, therefore, give arguments to prove this 
statement, as I have sufficiently discussed it in the 
first part of my essay. The phrenologists, by sys- 
tematically studying man according to the principles 
which I have laid down in this essay, escaped the 
vague generalities of the metaphysical school. The 
phrenologists avoided the difficulty of separating 
clearly the genetic from adaptive powers, or funda- 
mental powers from their combinations, by observing 
men of extreme development. Men of one idea, 
specialists in various departments, were observed, and 
the elements which made them such, clearly ascer- 
tained. When the elementary faculties are once dis- 
covered the way is clear. Any intelligent person can 
combine the fundamental powers together, and esti- 
mate accurately their effects in combination. This 
analytic system can not lead to abuse if followed ac- 
cording to the method laid down by the founders of 
Phrenology. The unnecessary or too minute analysis 
which has crept into some works of late date on 
phrenological classification, seems to have arisen, not 
from methods of close observation, but rather from 
the imagination and the introspective method. 

ANALYSIS THE BASIS OF PROGRESSIVE SCIENCE. 

Analysis is characteristic of all sciences whose prin- 
ciples are subject to observation and experiment. In 
the childhood of all sciences men are satisfied with 
mere generalities, but as science progresses these 
generalities become more specific. Things formerly 
included under a certain class are shown to differ 



THE TRUE BASIS. 6 1 

among themselves, so that two species may be formed 
from that which before was held to be but one. 
Analysis is the spirit of our age ; not content with the 
classification of natural objects which the naked eye 
has given, men have surveyed the field of objects 
with the microscope, and microscopic analysis now 
forms an important part of every science. The 
chemist, by proceeding upon this principle, has an- 
alyzed into simpler elements many things before re- 
garded as elementary. Everything general has now 
its subdivisions. The chemists can tell how various 
elements, when compounded, may either neutralize 
each other or increase their own qualities, or produce 
a third thing different from the elements. So the 
phrenologists, having pierced the veil of human 
action, having got beyond the compounds which 
make up human motives, and having discovered the 
elements upon which the compounds depend, have 
laid the basis for the science of character. 

All the types of character are nothing more than 
the effect of the combination of the genetic powers. 
For example, a mean, grasping, sordid character like 
the miser, may be shown to have as its principal ele- 
ment an excessive and powerful activity of the organ 
of Acquisitiveness unrestrained by the moral and in- 
tellectual faculties. A science of character thus built 
upon the fundamental or genetic powers, is able to 
state the elements in every type of character, and to 
arrange all types under their respective classes. This 
is evident from the phrenological classification, which 
revolves man's constitution into three well-defined 



62 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

regions — animal, moral, and intellectual, with various 
subdivisions. It is my object to show that the true 
basis for the study of character has not been solved 
by the psychological or experimental schools of phi- 
losophy, but by the phrenological, because that school 
has endeavored, however imperfectly, to study man 
according to the plan which we have pointed out as 
the one capable of reaching satisfactory conclusions. 

APPLICATIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 

First, then, the phrenologists divide the region of the 
propensities into the social and selfish groups. The 
social group includes those propensities which prompt 
us to love home, friends, and country. All the types 
of character whose characteristics are those of socia- 
bility, may be shown to depend upon one or more of 
the propensities of the group. Thus those who love 
their home, wife, and all the pleasures of the family 
circle, are not only included in this class, but the very 
power which shapes the direction of their sociability 
can be pointed out. For example, large Philopro- 
genitiveness will lead a mother or father to manifest 
their sociability in the love and care of children. Or 
Conjugal Love will make the husband and wife to 
desire the companionship of each other more than 
that of others. 

The second division of the propensities is the 
selfish group, whose normal function is self-preserva- 
tion. Thus Alimentiveness in the normal state gives 
simply a desire and relish for food, and regulates its 
quantity, whereas in an abnormal condition it leads 



THE TRUE BASIS. 63 

to gluttony and drinking ; hence under this class may 
be included the glutton and drunkard, prominent 
types of character which prevail in civilized commu- 
nities. As this division comprises such organs as 
Destructiveness, Combativeness, etc., we can class 
the pugilistic type under this head, also murderers, 
soldiers, and all those types of character which have 
traits of aggressiveness. Acquisitiveness and Secret- 
iveness, although in their normal action are necessary 
to economy and prudence ; in abnormal activity, 
when unrestrained by the higher faculties, they may 
produce a disposition to steal. Hence under this 
division are arranged all those persons whose leading 
traits of character are cunning, secrecy, and theft. 
In general the criminal class are those who have the 
propensities excessively developed, and the moral and 
intellectual faculties comparatively weak. They can 
be divided into types according to the fundamental 
powers or combination of powers, which shape their 
character. 

Second. The moral sentiments are divided into 
two groups, the selfish and religious group. The 
selfish group comprises such faculties as Cautiousness, 
Love of Approbation, Self-esteem, and Firmness. 
Under this division there are many well-marked types 
of character. The coward or poltroon, the timid and 
irresolute, belong here. Here also belongs the egotist, 
a prominent character. Everybody has come across 
the man who esteems himself highly; who thinks 
everybody is wrong but himself ; who lays down his 
commands with authority; whose fiat must be obeyed. 



64 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

Much of the manifestations of egotism depends upon 
the unbalanced activity of the organ of Self-esteem. 
The well-known type, whose chief trait is vanity, has 
its place here — those who glory in talking about 
themselves, who are ever striving for the praise of 
others. Women who are fond of dress and show, 
and who love flattery, come under this division. A 
normal development of love of approbation gives 
ambition and due respect for the opinions of others, 
but in abnormal activity leads to vanity. Under the 
influence of the organ of Firmness, which is one of 
this group, we have the well-defined types of char- 
acter whose leading trait is stubbornness. Men of 
strong convictions and iron will ; men who are not 
easily turned aside from the path they are treading ; 
men who can be relied upon to stick to whatever 
cause they espouse, belong to this class. Firmness 
in its normal activity is an essential element in all 
truly magnanimous characters, but when unduly de- 
veloped and not restrained by the higher faculties, 
leads to that unloving type of character which we 
call the mulish or ass type. All those men who are 
dogmatic, who adhere to opinions or measures in 
spite of reason or persuasion, belong to this class. 
When to large Firmness is added an abnormal de- 
velopment of the organ of Self-esteem, we have that 
most unlovely type of character, the dogmatic egotist. 
This type is rather prevalent among the Anglo-Saxon 
race. Who has not had to suffer from some domi- 
neering, tyrannical, egotistical specimen of humanity ? 
It ought to be remembered, however, that all the 



THE TRUE BASIS. 65 

fundamental powers have their appropriate sphere of 
action, and none of them are essentially bad, but good 
when in normal development and activity ; it is only 
when abnormal that they give rise to these marked 
types. 

The second division of the sentiments, viz., the 
religious group, which comprises such faculties as 
Conscientiousness, Hope, Marvelousness, Veneration, 
explain all the religious types of mankind. The de- 
vout Christian, the adoring worshiper, the religious 
enthusiast, the troublesome ritualist and spiritualist, 
have their place under this division. Moralists, di- 
vines, philanthropists, and all sympathetic and ador- 
ing types, depend upon one or more of the organs 
found in this group. 

The semi-intellectual group now demands attention. 
This group consists of such faculties as Constructive- 
ness, Ideality, Sublimity, Imitation, Mirthfulness, etc. 
This class embraces the mechanician, the artist, the 
orator, the poet, the sculptor, etc. But it must be 
recollected that more than one organ is necessary to 
form these types. Thus, for instance, while the 
orator needs sublimity, ideality, imitation, and wit, 
which are organs belonging to this division, he also 
requires faculties which belong to the other division 
I have described. In speaking of types of character, 
it would be necessary to give, first, the classification 
of mind, and then to take up each type in detail, and 
show just exactly what are the elements which form 
that type of character, but this would require more 
space than is permitted me. I must, therefore, be 



66 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

brief, at the expense of being misunderstood. I think 
that a better classification, derived from the phreno- 
logical system, could be made, bearing especially upon 
types of character, as a separate and a very import- 
ant subject. I hope to see this point more fully de- 
veloped by the phrenologists. It is not that the 
elements of the hnman mind, as set forth by the 
phrenological system, are erroneous, or that their 
meanings shade into one another and thus produce 
cross-division, as Bain and others have asserted, but 
that while one classification or arrangement is philo- 
sophically essential in the exposition of the human 
mind, another arrangement of the elementary powers 
is necessary when we come to apply the phrenological 
classification to explain types of character. 

The intellectual faculties also lead to marked types 
of character. This group of faculties consists of In- 
dividuality, Form, Size, Weight, Color, Order, Calcu- 
lation, Tune, Time, Eventuality, Language, etc. It 
may be shown that according to the development and 
activity of one or more of these faculties men have a 
tendency toward certain professions. Thus, for in- 
stance, calculation was the ruling passion of Bidder, 
the wonderful calculator ; a passion for colors was a 
leading trait in the character of Benjamin West, the 
celebrated painter. Explorers, navigators, and geog- 
raphers have a good development of the perceptive 
faculties, especially Locality. So Tune and Time will 
explain the genius for music which some possess. 
The literary class must have good endowments of the 
intellectual faculties, especially Language. We may 



THE TRUE BASIS. 6? 

explain such types of character as the loquacious 
talker, the prattler, the eternal gabbler, who seems 
to have an inexhaustible supply of words, by show- 
ing that a large development of the organ of Lan- 
guage, pure and simple, is its basis. 

The philosophic type has its basis in the reflective 
organs, with such as Comparison and Causality 
largely developed. 

It would be a long story to show in detail how ad- 
mirably the phrenological analysis of mind can be 
applied to the exposition of character ; but in all that 
has been said, it ought to be remembered that v/hen 
we speak of one faculty as forming a type of charac- 
ter, we do not mean that all the other faculties are 
absent in that type, but we mean that the faculty 
spoken of so predominates over all the others, that it 
shapes the character and forms a special type. There 
are also types of character which are the result, not 
of one elementary power, but of a combination of 
powers. 

THE ORATORICAL TYPE OF CHARACTER — AN 
ANALYSIS. 

I laid down as a basis for the study of character 
the principle that man ought to be studied as he 
presents himself to us, and I also pointed out that 
the best way to carry out this principle was to con- 
sider man psychologically, physiologically, and phys- 
iognomically. In accordance with this I have given 
a very brief outline of the genetic powers in man, 
which singly and in combination form the basis of 



68 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

types of character. But the reader, from this short 
abstract, can form no adequate conception of the 
fullness, practicality, and scientific accuracy of this 
method of investigating human character. It was my 
intention to take up prominent types of character in 
detail and analyze them according to the basis laid 
down, but this would require more space and time 
than is at my disposal. I will, however, select one 
prominent type for special treatment, and I hope it 
may convey some notion of how well this system of 
studying man can fulfill the necessary conditions of 
scientific accuracy. 

ORATORICAL TYPE. 

I select the oratorical type for special treatment, 
not because it is an easy type to analyze ; far other- 
wise, for no system of mental philosophy or character- 
reading has been able to give a clear, full, and ex- 
haustive exposition of this type. My object in se- 
lecting it is rather because of its importance, and be- 
cause it embraces the three divisions laid down more 
exhaustively than almost any other type, and though 
difficult to analyze, yet, upon this account, affords a 
good example of the principle of investigation laid 
down. 

What, then, are the qualities of an orator, and upon 
what elements of the human constitution do they de- 
pend? We have all felt the mysterious power of 
oratory, more or less, and we would welcome with 
joy any system of character-reading which enables us 
to make at least an approximate estimate of what con- 



THE TRUE BASIS. 69 

stitutes true oratory. In the consideration, however, 
of this subject, I am obliged to be brief at the sacri- 
fice of beauty and clearness of statement. 

Let us take an orator as he presents himself before 
an audience, we forming members of that audience, 
and endeavor to study him as he appears to us. Our 
speaker is a popular one, an orator of a national 
or world-wide reputation ; this is the best model for 
study. As he steps upon the platform, the confused 
murmur of whispering pleasantry subsides, and all 
eyes are directed toward this one man. What a ter- 
rible situation for a human being ; ten thousand faces, 
all glowing with various passions, emotions, and 
thoughts, are turned toward him. Innumerable eyes 
are flashing a steady magnetic flame into his eyes. It 
is no wonder that the orator seems to tremble ; his 
first sentences are husky, inarticulate, and tremulous. 
A strange, excitable dread takes possession of his 
whole being, and his body shrinks back, as if wishing 
to escape from this vast army of men and women. 
What shall he do? Retire in disgrace, or attempt 
and fail ? How can he, a man possessing the same 
number of faculties, intellectual, emotional, and 
animjal, as each individual before him, ever address a 
great assembly of men and women, all burning with 
passions, some the very opposite to those which he 
wishes to kindle ? It is a dreadful position for any 
mortal. Very few have been successful. You can 
count great men in poetry, philosophy, science, and 
other departments, and fill a book with them, but 
great popular orators can be told off on your ten 



yo HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

fingers. To face an audience of men and women, 
and sway them by the power of eloquent speech for 
an hour or two, is a triumph far greater than the con- 
quest of a kingdom. 

The few who have accomplished this glorious vic- 
tory are found scattered on the pages of history, and 
it would be an easy task for the memory to enumer- 
ate them. But let us see, our orator is one of the 
successful ones. He passes the Rubicon. That ex- 
citability which almost overpowered his intellect now 
becomes the electric fire by which he will send his 
message into the palpitating hearts of the multitude 
of men and women before him. Those eyes and 
faces which seemed at first so dreadful, so threatening 
in their aspect, will become the source of his greatest 
power. As each gleam of pathos, sublimity, wit, and 
burning logic, lights up his eyes, plays on his coun- 
tenance, and radiates from every atom of his body, so 
does a responsive flame glow on the faces of the men 
and women before him. Thus sympathy is awakened, 
a bond of communication is established, and that 
which the orator at first feared has become the 
momentum power of his success. 

As we listen to him, we feel indescribable thrills 
run through and through our frames. Sometimes 
they pass along the heart like an icy hand, sometimes 
they awaken to fury irresistible, and the cry is, 
" Grasp the shield, draw the sword "; " Let us fight 
for the principles which the speaker advocates " ; 
" Let us march against Philip ! " Then, again, we 
are entranced, charmed, and held spell-bound by some 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



71 



beautiful, mysterious, or wonderful illustration or de- 
scription. Perhaps wit plays with all the irresistible 
charm of humor, mirth, and drollery ; and laughter 
and applause follow each other in rapid succession. 
And the more we respond to these emotions, stimu- 
lated by the orator, the more powerful and higher his 
flights of eloquence become. 

Now, the question for us to solve is, upon what 
does all this depend ? There is evidently a current 
of sympathy between the audience and the speaker. 
What is the law of this current, and the conditions 
of its manifestation ? It depends upon the three 
conditions which I have mentioned as an introduc- 
tion to this subject. They are, psychological, physio- 
logical, and physiognomical. 

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL. 

This embraces all the qualities of mind necessary 
to an orator. In the old scheme of metaphysical 
analysis we would probably find the essentials of 
oratory enumerated as a gift of the imagination, a 
copious supply of words acquired by habits of study, 
the capacity to arrange in an orderly way the various 
heads of a speech. Their analysis would consist, at 
any rate, of the enumeration of some general powers ; 
but few specific elements would be mentioned, and 
no attempt would be made to connect them with 
brain or body. In our analysis, we shall attempt to 
specify the psychological conditions necessary to ora- 
tory. There are individual differences in orators, but 
there are general principles which are common to all. 



j 2 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

First, a bond of sympathy must be established be- 
tween the speaker and the listener in order that the 
orator may accomplish his purpose, which is the chief 
end of oratory. 

• Second, special endowment ; there is a genius for 
oratory as there is for poetry, philosophy, and science. 
The law of sympathy with respect to this principle 
is relative ; its activity depends upon the constitu- 
tional endowment of the speaker and the listener. 
If the orator and his audience have a number of 
faculties in common, there will be a psychological 
current of sympathy set in motion whenever these 
elements are awakened in the speaker and the listener. 
Now, this current will be more powerful and over- 
whelming in its sweep, the more numerous the con- 
stitutional elements aroused, and according to the 
depth and brilliancy of the ideas and phraseology 
which appeal to them. This is why one kind of ora- 
tory has a powerful effect upon some, and , another 
kind has an equal effect upon others. The national 
or popular orator has the power to awaken the 
greatest number of constitutional elements, which are 
possessed in common, or to intensify a few of the 
more energetic and elevated with frenzied passion. 
Orators who could sway all classes of people have 
been few. The great popular orators, like Demos- 
thenes and Cicero in ancient, and Chatham, White- 
field, and Chalmers in modern times, are not numer- 
ous. The reason is partly psychological and partly 
circumstantial. There must be genius, and there must 
be opportunity. All great orators have appeared in 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



73 



great crises of the world's history ; there must be an 
outlet for brilliant oratorical bursts commensurate 
with their power and splendor. 

The psychological gifts are these : The highest 




Daniel Webster. 

success in oratory depends upon rare constitutional 
endowments ; large mental powers in the highest 
state of activity ; a vigorous endowment of the emo- 
tional nature ; a poetic imagination, and a command 
of choice phraseology. Large mental powers depend 
4 



74 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

upon the size, quality, texture, and health of the brain. 
All the organs must not only be large, but they must 
be in a passional state of activity. No metaphysical 
coolness, no abstract logic, no dry formulas, and com- 
monplace phraseology can thrill an audience. Meta- 
physical reasoning must become concrete, logic must 
shine in the volcanic flames of the emotions, and 
words must be instinct with life and power. 

There are two ways of gaining truth through meta- 
physical and intricate logical processes or by poetic 
and imaginative intuition. Great philosophers like 
Kant and Aristotle reached truth by the former; 
eminent poets like Shakespeare and Milton, by the 
latter process. Truth is just as true discovered by 
Shakespeare as by Kant. But truth in the hands of 
Shakespeare is more persuasive, because dipped in 
the fountains whence well up the life-springs of 
action, the fountains of emotion and imagination. 
The orator should present truth more after the man- 
ner of the poet than the metaphysician. 

We have said that the orator should, if possible, 
possess all the faculties in the human constitution in 
a high state of power. It is right here that oratory 
divides off into branches ; here is where the streams 
separate, and different styles of oratory become mani- 
fest. Some orators possess a few faculties in a state 
of great power and activity, as compared with other 
elements in their make-up, and this leads to a pecul- 
iar style of oratory. For example, an orator may be 
all emotional ; the whole of his discourse may be 
addressed to the feelings, pure and simple ; he will 



THE TRUE BASIS. 75 

wield great power over those who have a similar en- 
dowment ; and in a great metropolis will draw around 
him a large audience, but he can never be a national 
orator ; he never can be like Chalmers, Demosthenes, 
or Lord Chatham. This emotional class of orators 
may divide again into as many branches as there are 




Demosthenes. 

different elementary powers manifesting themselves 
in their oratory. Thus, for example, an orator under 
the influence of the organ of Benevolence will have a 
sympathetic style of delivery. His illustrations will 
be tinged more or less with pathos. If we add wit, 
sublimity, and ideality, then we shall have an orator 
like John B. Gough, who thrills his audience with 



76 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, ■ 

stories of pathos, humor, and heroism. Add to these 
other powers, and you make an approach to the model 
orator. The mere effusions, expletives, and exclama- 
tions such as are sometimes heard among itinerant 
preachers, ought not to be dignified with the name 
of oratory. They are not bursts of genuine passion ; 
they are mere sentimentality, the product, not of a 
highly emotional nature, but of a low state of devel- 
opment of the feelings. The endeavor of all such is 
to stimulate feeling which is only skin deep in their 
nature ; hence they express themselves in howls and 
exclamations. This kind of oratory has been called 
the oratory of the feelings, but it is no such thing. 
It is rather a superficial show of the genuine article. 
Feelings which are deep and powerfully active, are 
passionate, not sentimental ; they express themselves 
in real pictures, rather than empty expletives. Wrap- 
ped around the gleaming trellis-work of the imagi- 
nation, they glow with all the luxuriance of reality. 

It would be a long task to enumerate all the styles 
of oratory. It is sufficient to remember that psycho- 
logical difference leads to variety of style. While we 
assert that every faculty of the human constitution 
can be skillfully employed in oratory, there are some 
faculties without which no one can be a great orator. 
There must be the gift of speech, the organ of Lan- 
guage, as the phrenologists call it. Men have indeed 
influenced an audience who were not fluent in speech; 
but we do not call that eloquence. Their power was 
not in their oratory, but probably in the truth or 
efficacy of their statement, or in the importance of 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



77 



the cause for which they spoke. Genuine oratory 
demands a skillful use of choice words, harmonious 
in sound and radiant with feeling. Strong, pointed 
phraseology, interspersed with stately periods, is a 
powerful auxiliary in arousing men to action. All 




Chrysostom. 

the popular orators have possessed this power. Their 
diction is marvelous for sweetness, music, and grand- 
eur. A good endowment of language, then, is essen- 
tial to an orator. 

Imagination and originality of conception are the 
next psychological requisites. The metaphysical 
school simply mentions Imagination in their analysis 



78 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

as a general power ; it is therefore of value only so 
far as it is a convenient term easy of use ; but if we 
take the best classification of the mind which has as 
yet appeared, that of Phrenology, we will have a 
more satisfactory and practical definition of Imagina- 
tion. Imagination, pure and simple, is the ability to 
call up an image or representation of object, idea, or 
event. It is that faculty which makes old truths live 
over again, which develops and clothes with living 
beauty the dry bones of intellectual conceptions. But 
imagination is not one and indivisible ; it is not a 
primitive faculty, it is a general conception like mem- 
ory, emotion, etc. Imagination, in a general sense, 
is a property of every faculty in the human mind. 
Benevolence, for instance, in a state of activity can 
conceive of suffering so as to inspire the intellect to - 
supply materials for a pathetic story. So Veneration, 
Hope, Spirituality, Amativeness, all have their imagi- 
native side, and according to the development and 
passional activity of these organs will be the intensity 
of the imaginative picture which they present. Such 
is imagination in general ; but the higher functions . 
of imagination — the sublime and beautiful — depend 
upon the passional activity of sublimity and ideality. 
Ideality gives that exquisite feeling of harmony and 
proportion ; it detects and rejoices in the beautiful. 
An indescribable thrill of pleasure seems to radiate 
from all artistic works of perfection. Ideality is, 
therefore, an element in perfection of diction and 
beauty of ideas. But the most important organ in 
high and elevated oratory is Sublimity. All popular 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



79 



orators have possessed it well-developed. It seems 
almost absolutely necessary to popular oratory. When 
we conceive of the magnitude of the occasion when 
an orator must address thousands of men and women ; 
when anything commonplace would be unsuitable for 




Cicero. 



such a vast assembly ; when, if the speaker wishes to 
preserve his own identity, his power over so vast and 
threatening a multitude, his language, his phraseology, 
his ideas must be correspondingly magnificent. Sub- 
limity clothes all with power. Images and illustra- 
tions subjected to its influence burn with volcanic 
intensity. It has power to lift up and sway an audi- 
ence as no other sentiment or intellectual faculty can. 



80 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

Besides imparting grandeur and magnitude to all the 
emotional nature, it draws the intellectual concep- 
tions within its furnace and imparts to them a giant 
strength. Hence there have been orators who, in 
the utterance of what would have been otherwise 
cool intellectual statements, have seemed to swell 
with irresistible power. This was because the con- 
ceptions were so heightened in magnitude and power 
by sublimity that they lost for the present their com- 
monplace intellectuality. 

If we wish to prove this, we have but to take up 
the speeches of Demosthenes and Chatham, and the 
sermons of the great Scottish preacher — Thomas 
Chalmers. Reason in Demosthenes is not common- 
place ; the strong elements are seized upon and sub- 
limity exaggerates their proportions. It is the faculty 
which delights in strong contrasts. The Psalms of 
David and the book of Job, and prophets Isaiah, Eze- 
kiel, and the book of Revelation are examples. It 
abounds in Shakespeare, Homer, and Milton. It 
forms one-third of prose, two-thirds of poetry, and 
four-fifths of genuine oratory. I have no space for 
illustration, but here is a comparison which has rooted 
and blossomed in the fertile soil of sublimity. The 
orator is speaking of the corruptions of the Roman 
Empire, and is seeking for a comparison by which to 
represent the death of her national life, the effect of 
those corruptions. He compares the utter desolation 
of Roman nationality to an extinct volcano. 

" My friends, have you ever stood above the crater 
of a volcano when she has spouted forth her burning 



THE TRUE BASIS. Si 

lava and gazed far down into her hissing womb, void 
of all save murky darkness ? Such was Rome — one 
vast volcano drained of all her fire and life ; the lurid 
light of her dying ashes served only to reveal the vile 
filth spread in heaps around ; she grows detested in 



the sight of nations ; her doom is drawing nigh ; the 
cold hand of death is on her." 

Now, an equivalent statement of this by the intel- 
lectual faculties would be a tame affair. It would be 



82 BOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

simply that Rome, because of her corruptions of mor- 
als and general political disorganization, lost her na- 
tional spirit and so fell a prey to her enemies. But 
how faint the impression made upon an audience by 
the latter expression. 

I have said that sublimity was one of the most use- 
ful faculties in oratory, inasmuch as it made even 
logic and metaphysics live in a dazzling atmosphere. 
Chalmers* astronomical sermons are illustrative of this. 
Probably no other orator ever submitted such deep 
intellectual thought to a mixed audience as Thomas 
Chalmers. Yet he was listened to with rapt attention 
because of the enthusiasm of his delivery and the 
magnitude of his expressions. In his portrait the 
organs of Sublimity and Ideality are both large. 
These organs, Ideality and Sublimity, prompt the 
intellect to express ideas concretely, not abstractly. 
This is a high element in oratory. There never has 
been a great orator, and probably there never can be 
one, who does not manifest this quality. All the 
great preachers have the faculty of picture-painting 
of ideas more or less. The tameness of the ordinary 
preacher is the result in part of a lack of this quality 
of the imagination. They gather a few common- 
place thoughts and string them together by means 
of stale phraseology. The whole may have the ap- 
pearance of condensed thought, but it is old thought 
in an old garb. Sunday after Sunday people are 
bored with this stuff, and there is no relief. The 
clergyman they had before preached in the same 
way, and should they get a new clergyman he would 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



83 



probably do the same thing ; so there is no escape 
except to cut prayers as often as possible. 

The absence of imagination and originality in a 
minister is almost fatal to his success as a preacher, 
because the substantial facts of Christianity are old, 
and church-people have heard them over and over 




mirabeaU 



again. What is wanted in such circumstances is to 
produce truth in a new way, in new phraseology, with 
new illustrations, and new turns of thought, make it 
glow with the light of the imagination. 

I will just quote one extract from the greatest ora- 
tor since Demosthenes — Lord Chatham, as an illus- 
tration of the difference between commonplace state- 
ment and that produced by the imagination : " The 
poorest man may, in his cottage, bid defiance to all 



84 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

the forces of the crown. It may be frail — its roof 
may shake — the wind may blow through it — the 
storm may enter — the rain "may enter — but the king 
of England can not enter! — all his forces dare not 
cross the threshold of the ruined tenement." 

The common intellectual statement would be sim- 
ply that the king of England has no power to enter 
a peasant's cottage without that peasant's permis- 
sion. The latter some would regard as strong be- 
cause more brief, and the speaker would get credit 
for condensation ; but is it not a poor, insipid state- 
ment, compared with the pathos and sublimity of 
that of England's greatest orator? 

The other qualification, originality, is partly a prod- 
uct of the emotional nature and partly an intellectual 
endowment. The capacity to grasp truth in an orig- 
inal way, to clothe it with new phraseology and turns 
of thought, is an indication of true genius. A speaker 
may be influential who collects and gathers facts and 
presents them before an audience as matters of in- 
formation without original reflection, but he never 
can wield the destinies of nations, or systems of 
truth, or the fate of great movements. It is great 
orators like O'Connell, Chatham, Fox, Mirabeau, and 
Luther, who can shake thrones, demolish old abuses, 
and build up on their ruins a new and more noble 
edifice, burning with the original fire of their own age. 
I have said that the power of originality was partly a 
quality of intellect and partly a product of the emo- 
tional nature. The intellectual faculty most concerned 
is Comparison, whose function is to detect similarities 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



85 



in ideas and things. Old truths become new by plac- 
ing them in new relations, or by discovering their 
similarity to other truths. In doing this there is a 
process of comparison going on, an object is pre- 
sented by the observation, and the faculty of Com- 
parison detects a likeness or common resemblance 




between that object and some other object or idea. 
This flash of identification is an element in original- 
ity. All great inventors and scientific investigators 
have made their discoveries in this way. It was by 
a stroke of the identifying faculty that Newton saw 
the law of gravitation in the falling apple, and that 
Watt beheld the steam engine in the white coils of 
the vapor issuing from the mouth of the kettle. 



86 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

Comparison extends through every department of 
knowledge — in botany, chemistry, philosophy, and 
poetry. In oratory it is almost indispensable. The 
Saviour of mankind — the greatest orator the world 
has ever seen — seldom spoke without a comparison. 
"The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard 
seed." " It is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a 
needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of 
heaven." The prodigal son, the man traveling into 
a far country, the foolish virgins and their oilless 
lamps, and many other fetches of similarity testify to 
the usefulness of comparison in oratory. If we ex- 
amine the great sermons of distinguished preachers, 
we will find them full of metaphors, similes, and 
fetches of the identifying faculty. Take, for in- 
stance, Rev. Phillips Brooks, the great Boston 
preacher, and you will find examples of this power. 
His famous sermon, "The Candle of the Lord," is a 
stretch of the identifying faculty from beginning to 
end. Man under the image of a candle is presented 
in all his relations to God. The power of similarity 
may express itself in simple illustrations and com- 
parisons, or it may, by the aid of the other faculties, 
especially Sublimity and Ideality, carry out a grand 
image under which truth gleams in all its relation- 
ships. Brooks' sermon just spoken of is an example 
of this kind. The image of a candle runs through 
the whole discourse, supported by beauty and grand- 
eur of statement. It is one of those rare sermons 
which will rank its author among the greatest of 
orators. 



THE TRUE BASIS. 87 

I can not help remarking in passing that Phillips 
Brooks is a good illustration of all I have been incul- 
cating under this subject, and, as he is within the 
reach of investigation, it may be well to mention 
some of his characteristics as an orator. He has a 
large head and strong physical development, but of 
that I will speak under the division of the physiolog- 
ical side of man. The most perceptible qualities in his 
oratory are fervor, grandeur, and vivacity. His fer- 
vor springs from his active brain and emotional tem- 
perament. The grandeur, dignity, and overwhelming 
impressiveness of his thoughts arise from the condi- 
tion we spoke of before; they have budded and fruit- 
blown in the rich soil of sublimity. His vivacity 
springs from the intense excitability of his whole con- 
stitution ; every faculty is not only active, but alive 
with passion. He does not merely think truth, he 
feels it. This is because he has all the psychological 
registers enumerated in this essay. He has also 
well - developed physiological and physiognomical 
characteristics, but of these we will speak hereafter. 

PHYSIOLOGICAL SIDE. 

We come now to examine our model orator from 
the physiological side. First, then, there is a temper- 
ament of body more favorable to oratory than any 
other. The vital-mental temperament is the best. 
I do not maintain that all orators have had this tem- 
perament — there are abundant examples of the men- 
tal-motive, motive-mental, and vital-motive. But 
the highest flights of oratory are compatible with the 



88 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

vital-mental temperament. There should be an equal 
balance of the temperaments ; no one should be ex- 
tremely weak ; but if any predominate, it should be 
the vital. The enormous strain of excitability, the 
intense mental effort, the dread of failure, the almost 
superhuman courage necessary to face a sea of faces, 
the tremendous vocal exertions, all eat and drink up 
the vital fluids of life. 

The vital constitution is naturally excitable ; it is 
the genuine emotional nature ; it can bear heavy 
strains of passion-feeling, because passion is its food, 
and emotion its pastime. The vital temperament is 
characterized by great lung power and good diges- 
tion. There is an abundance of good hard flesh, and 
the blood is full, vigorous, and active. The great 
breathing power which comes from the large develop- 
ment of the organs of respiration and inspiration is 
highly essential to vocal delivery. The vital temper- 
ament is vivacious; every member of the body is 
active, every movement of the hands, eyes, and face 
is expressive. It is, in short, the Elocution temper- 
ament. Since all the vital fluids are vigorous and 
highly charged with the elixir of life, there is a con- 
stant stream of magnetism passing from this temper- 
ament through the voice, eye, and gesticulations. 
This temperament, therefore, gives an orator a mys- 
terious power over his audience. What is called 
magnetism is merely a current of sympathetic feel- 
ing developed between the speaker and the audience. 
The orator who can awaken emotion in himself can 
awaken similar emotion in the listener, if the means 



THE TRUE BASIS. 89 

of communication are good ; and these are generally 
of a high nature in the vital temperament. It is the 
nature of good oratory to glow with feeling at all 
times, and the vital temperament is most susceptible 
to influences, external and internal, which produce 
feeling. The personal appearance of an orator of 
this kind of temperament is attractive and command- 
ing. An audience is powerfully impressed by a well- 
developed physical form. The vital temperament 
has, as one of its great elements, the function of re- 
productivity ; to supply material for brain, muscle, 
flesh, and nerve, is its great office. There is, there- 
fore, a fullness and repletion of all the elements of 
the body and brain in this temperament. This is of 
the greatest importance to the orator, not only in 
supporting the enormous strain of nerve and muscle 
to which he is subjected, but it gives that equipoise 
of body, that feeling of ease and repose to gesticula- 
tion and voice delivery which is called " reserve 
power." 

An orator with this temperament performs all the 
functions of speaking with ease and deliberation. If 
we pass in review the great orators of ancient and 
modern times, we will find that the vital-mental tem- 
perament prevails in nearly all. Bossuet, Chalmers, 
Whitefield, Chatham, Fox, Webster, and Henry Ward 
Beecher are prominent examples. 

It is also the constitution of great actors, because 
the vocal powers are generally well developed in this 
temperament. 



9° 



HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 



THE VOCAL POWERS. 



The capacity to deliver well a speech or discourse 
depends upon the vocal organs. In an essay like this 
I can not go into physiological details respecting the 
vocal organs. But I may state in passing that vocal- 
ity depends upon the muscles of the abdomen, the 
capacity of the chest, the resonant power of the 
larynx, pharynx, and mouth. According to the size 
of these organs, all other things being equal, depends 
the power of elocution. Each of these organs has 
its appropriate function in voice formation. No 
system of elocution can be successful if the function 
of each has not been carefully distinguished. It is 
the predominating power of one or more of the 
organs of voice over others which makes the differ- 
ence in delivery. A large larynx, for instance, will 
give that deep, bell-like tone which is a characteristic 
of some speakers. Elocution teachers should not 
attempt to destroy this tone in their pupils, if it is 
natural, and they should not force it upon others if 
not natural to them ; it is because this principle is 
overlooked by elocutionists that artificiality is often- 
times the result of elocutionary training. The train- 
ing of the voice is of the utmost importance in speak- 
ing. The great national orators have had good vocal 
powers. Even if a speaker is endowed with a good 
voice it is necessary that he should keep it flexible 
and sympathetic by elocutionary training. Many of 
the great orators have had naturally good voices, but 
they were diligent in training them. This training, 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



91 



however, should be conducted on scientific principles. 
There is method in everything. The various systems 
of elocution which have as yet appeared are defective 
in at least one principle, and that principle is a very 
vital one. Complete success can not dawn upon elo- 
cutionary training until this principle is complied 
with. Training of the voice is all very well, but after 
the voice is trained the element of expression should 
be studied. Now, all systems of elocution so far, fall 
short of a complete, satisfactory, and philosophical 
exposition of the principle of expression, because 
they have not studied man's constitution. True, ac- 
curate, and perfect expression depends upon how far 
the elements of that expression represent the facul- 
ties of the human constitution. In other words, a 
philosophical analysis of the human constitution 
should be at the basis of elocutionary training. This 
principle, when complied with, is productive of the 
highest results, as I could illustrate from my own ex- 
perience. When we know, for instance, the natural 
language either of voice, gesture, or any one of the 
mental powers of the human constitution, we have a 
double method of procedure by which we can train 
that power to express itself in oratory. We can stir 
up the internal feeling appropriate to that power by 
bringing before it images, words, or actions which ap- 
peal to that emotion, or we can simply assume the 
language of the emotion without arousing the inter- 
nal feeling. 

There are present in all good delivery two charac- 
teristics : symbol and spirit, shell and soul, sign and 



q 2 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

the thing signified. The most important of these is 
the spirit or soul. The undercurrent of all impressive 
oratory is the soul' or spirit. Now, this is precisely 
what elocutionists nearly always neglect ; they are so 
eager to teach the sign or symbol of a feeling that 
they do not take means to arouse the feeling itself. 
The soul or spirit of delivery can not be thoroughly 
trained without a knowledge of the human constitu- 
tion. To know the powers intellectual and emotional 
of one constitution and their various states of activ- 
ity from a low to a high degree of passion is of the 
utmost importance in the cultivation of those powers 
for the purpose of oratory. Elocutionists are wont 
to bring forward as proof of the efficacy of elocution- 
ary training the practice of great orators; but the 
method of these orators has not been the same as 
those promulgated by modern systems of elocution. 
Their practice was more psychological. They took 
selections of orations or poems the sentiment of 
which was capable of kindling their emotions ; and 
stirred by the internal feeling thus awakened, they 
delivered themselves. Hence their delivery was nat- 
ural, not artificial. They did not assume gestures, 
tones of voice, but they strove to kindle the internal 
feeling which would prompt the right gestures and 
vocal intonation expressive of that feeling. We do 
not disparage elocutionary training, but we do think 
that a more natural method could be devised capable 
of arriving at more satisfactory results. The basis of 
this method should be an analysis of the human con- 
stitution. A thorough exposition of all the emo- 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



93 



tions, passions, sentiments, and propensities should 
be made, and the gestures and tones of each clearly 
pointed out. The endeavor should be not merely to 
assume the language of the emotion, but to awaken 
the emotion itself. The basis of all good elocution 
is a real reproduction of nature. Bellowing and 
howling, dignified by the name of oratory, have, I 
hope, disappeared. The natural language of emo- 
tions and propensities when carefully studied will 
give the key to a graceful delivery. 

We will not delay on this subject any longer ; but 
there is one remark which we wish to make in pass- 
ing. The vocal organs differ in size and quality in 
the different temperaments. The practice, therefore, 
of elocutionists in training every pupil exactly alike 
is a practice unphilosophical and ruinous to good de- 
livery. Many a young man's delivery has been com- 
pletely spoiled by being drilled in a way which was 
suitable only for some other temperament. The form 
and size of the vocal organs should also guide the 
training. While it is wise to preserve individual char- 
acteristics of voice, yet a harmonious cultivation of 
all the vocal organs should be the aim of Elocution. 

We have seen, then, that the vocal organs are a 
great desideratum in the physiological endowment of 
the orator. A systematic study of the vocal organs 
should be made a part of the science of mind and 
character. This department I hope to see more fully 
developed by phrenologists. The vocal organs are so 
important in oratory, music, elocution, and acting, 
that a delineation of the character by artists in their 



q 4 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

profession can not be complete and perfect without 
a knowledge of these organs. The success of a musi- 
cian or orator depends as much upon his vocal as upon 
his psychological endowments. Besides, the various 
tones and inflections of voice are indicative of char- 
acter, and ought, therefore, to be systematically 
studied. 

It is easy to prove how necessary vocal power has 
been to the orator. The most distinguished orators 
on record have had good voices. The marvelous in- 
tonations of Demosthenes and Cicero still linger 
among the hills of Greece and Rome. Whitefield's 
wonderful voice representation, with its almost super- 
human power, flexibility, and intensity, is still in the 
memory of man. St. Chrysostom is yet remembered 
as John of the golden mouth, and Nestor as the clear- 
toned orator of the Pylians. 

THE PHYSIOGNOMICAL SIDE. 

This will not detain us long. Physiognomy is the 
judging of things by their appearance. The Creator, 
as He presents Himself to us, has a personate which 
is striking. We can generally tell whether a man is 
a great orator or not by his physiognomy. The ora- 
torical type is marked. It is generally characterized 
by the vital-mental temperament, or by a constitution 
equally balanced. The face is expressive. Large 
language fills out the eye ; facile gestures leave their 
impressions on the countenance. The forehead is 
generally large and wide at the upper lateral region, 
denoting intellect, and especially the development of 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



95 



the organs of Wit, Ideality, and Sublimity. The pro- 
pensities and sentiments are generally large, which 
give intensity and fervor to delivery. We can study 
his character from his gestures and vocal intonations. 

In this analysis of the oratorical type, I have briefly 
sketched the prominent psychological, physiological, 
and physiognomical indications. To sum all up in a 
smaller compass, the oratorical type depends upon a 
rare combination of the powers of mind and body. 
The orator should have a large brain, active and pas- 
sionate ; a high, excitable, or emotional nature, sup- 
ported by a strong constitution. There should be a 
predominance of the faculties of Language, Wit, 
Ideality, and Sublimity. This intellect must be 
strong and vigorous, with a predominance of the 
organ of Comparison. He stands midway between 
the poet and the philosopher ; he must have all the 
poet's feeling, with the logic of the philosopher ; but 
he differs from both in that his powers must be dis- 
played in a moment. He has not only to feel thought 
and emotion, but he has to propel them into his au- 
dience. The propulsive power of an orator is the dis- 
tinguishing feature between oratory and literature. 
A man may write out brilliant thoughts upon paper, 
but to deliver them is quite another affair. 

Orators differ according to the degree in which they 
possess these powers. These varieties of oratorical 
type can be analyzed and their basis pointed out. 

In support of the various principles laid down in 
this essay, we have but to take up the history of all 
the great orators, ancient and modern, and compare 



9 6 



HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 



their history with their constitutional development. 
The sculptured heads and shoulders of seven great 
orators ornament the upper part of the outside walls 
of Sanders' Theater at Harvard ; they are the heads 
of Demosthenes, Cicero, St. Chrysostom, Bossuet, 
Chatham, Burke, and Webster. In all of these heads 
the faculties we have enumerated are largely de- 
veloped ; and if the shoulders are a just representation 
of the originals, they evidently had what we have called 
the oratorical temperament. But if the objector to 
this method of investigation is fearful lest these sculpt- 
ured heads may not be exact reproductions of the 
originals, then we will take orators in our own neigh- 
borhood. 

Phillips Brooks is, probably, the most popular 
preacher in Boston. His whole constitutional build 
complies with our principles. He has the oratorical 
temperament, large brain power, with a predominance 
of the organs of Language, Comparison, and Sub- 
limity. In his sermons he displays a profound ana- 
lytical skill ; he seizes upon a particular conception 
of a text, and carries that conception throughout his 
whole discourse. No weak, puerile descriptions dis- 
grace his sermons ; there is profundity of thought 
with depth of feeling. Everything glows with sub- 
limity, even his very delivery ; it is a grand torrent 
from beginning to end. He sometimes wearies, be- 
cause in his delivery there is too much of the grand. 
His voice has not the silvery clearness nor penetrating 
quality of Wendell Phillips, nor the compass, flexi- 
bility, volume, and expressive intonation of Henry 



THE TRUE BASIS. gj 

Ward Beecher, but it has a depth and grandeur of 
resonance, an intensity of enunciation, an animated 
and expressive utterance, a natural and sympathetic 




Henry Ward Beecher. 



tone, and, when vitalized and charged at the cerebral 
batteries ' of his large brain, sways an audience at 
will with an overwhelming current of magnetism. 



p8 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

He has propulsive power in abundance, and his great 
physical stature gives him complete control over his 
audience, which makes up for his defective voice. 

Let us now take another illustration of a different 
stamp. Henry Ward Beecher, if not the greatest 
preacher of the age, is, at least, the most popular 
orator in America. He fully complies in every par- 
ticular with the principles herein laid down. He has 
almost every faculty in the human constitution largely 
developed. Language is so large as almost to be 
a deformity. Wit, Ideality, and Sublimity are also 
large, and his analytical power is immense. His emo- 
tional nature is intensely active and passionate. There 
is original thought combined with intense feeling, not 
surpassed by any orator. He is very large in the 
faculty of Human Nature, reads the characters of men 
like a book, and the activity of this faculty he has in- 
creased by a study of Phrenology. His knowledge of 
the human constitution is one element of his success. 
He preaches to men because he knows just what is 
in men. His scope of preaching is wider than any 
preacher of our age, and perhaps in any age, with the 
exception of St. Chrysostom. He is practical, logi- 
cal, and doctrinal ; but the practical element is more 
emphasized by him. Full of illustrations an J original 
thought, he never wearies. Age has not diminished 
his power. The streets of Brooklyn leading to Plym- 
outh church are still crowded with people anxious 
to obtain standing room. On account of his inde- 
pendent thought, he differs in many points from his 
orthodox brethren ; but the views which he enter- 



THE TRUE BASIS. gg 

tains resemble those of the new school of German 
theology. On account of his fertile imagination he 
never seems to get exhausted. His sermons are al- 
ways full of new material and new illustrations. If 
these qualities are not connected with his large phys- 
iological development, then with what are they con- 
nected? His physiological and physiognomical de- 
velopments are equally remarkable. Beecher has a 
well-balanced constitution, with a predominance of 
the vital-mental temperament. His stature is just a 
little above medium height, but his whole physique 
is firm and well knit. The quality and texture of 
brain, nerve, and body are good. His vocal powers 
are wonderful. He has a graceful and natural de- 
livery, pitched on a conversational basis, but capable 
of the grandest flight of oratory. In every respect, 
Brooks and Beecher fulfill the requisites for oratory 
laid down in this essay. 

I think it hardly necessary to enumerate more ; 
but, if further examples are wanting, we have but to 
turn to England for them. There we find Spurgeon 
and John Bright, both examples of the vital tempera- 
ment, and both fulfilling the psychological qualities 
mentioned. 

In the treatment of types of character, I have at- 
tempted to condense a very large subject into a small 
compass, and the result is not as satisfactory as one 
might wish, but it is hoped that sufficient has been 
here stated to show that the phrenological system can 
be employed to advantage in analyzing types of 
character. 



I0 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OH, 

RELATIONS OF PHRENOLOGY TO MODERN 
PHILOSOPHY. 

In the course of this essay it may not be out of place 
to show the important relation Phrenology bears to 
modern sciences which have directed their attention 
to the study of man. Phrenology analyzes the ge- 
netic powers of the human constitution, and treats of 
their action singly and in combination. Now, it is 
evident that if Phrenology has separated the instincts 
and various innate tendencies in man and connected 
them with cerebral development, it must have an im- 
portant bearing upon the evolution theory and the 
speculations of Darwin and Spencer. When Gall and 
Spurzheim gave their views to the world, the doctrine 
of the innate powers of the human constitution was 
at its lowest ebb. Hume, Paley, Hobbes, and others 
were the typical philosophers under whose yoke all 
men groaned. These philosophers reduced all our 
instincts, faculties, and everything which elevates us 
above the level of the dust, to mere bodily feelings 
of pleasure and pain. Notwithstanding that this 
doctrine seems absurd at the present time, it was 
then widely prevalent, because urged alike by skep- 
tics and Christian believers. To face the supporters 
of this groveling and debasing doctrine was the task 
of Gall and Spurzheim. Unfolding a system of men- 
tal philosophy, which not only recognized instinct as 
a part of our mental constitution, but that all our 
faculties were innate, and not created by any law of 
habit or association. This doctrine did not escape 



THE TRUE BASIS. \ \ 

the venom of skeptics and Christian philosophers, 
who stigmatized it as a materialistic system destined 
to overthrow all belief in philosophy and religion. 
Its supporters were branded as heretics, charlatans, 
and ignorant quacks, and some of them driven from 
their native country. 

Amid all opposition, however, the three faithful 
apostles of truth, Gall, Spurzheim, and Combe, spent 
their lives and fortunes in promulgating their prin- 
ciples. It is curious that some of this scorn and con- 
temptuous neglect still continue to sway the minds 
of some even in our own day. Men carefully avoid 
stating that they derive any light from Phrenology. 
Yet many of the doctrines taught by the phrenologist 
have crept into the legitimate branches of anatomy 
and physiology, without credit being given to their 
authors. Many points settled by the phrenologist 
are being brought forward every day as new discov- 
eries by the experimentalists. So valuable a collec- 
tion of facts and truths as that embraced in the works 
of the phrenologists could not remain hidden, but 
found their way among the thinking public at large. 
And when once you affect the thoughtful class who 
constitute the readers and arbiters of philosophic 
truth, a pressure is brought to bear upon select and 
conservative schools of learning, and finally the phi- 
losophers of such schools find themselves secretly 
imbibing truths which openly they would reject with 
scorn. 

Moreover, it is a deep principle, revealed by his- 
tory, that truth must prevail, if not in the garb or 



I02 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

body in which it is at first set forth, yet when culled 
of its disagreeable association or presentation, it 
silently makes its way where it was zealously de- 
barred. It was even so with phrenological truth. It 
was bitterly opposed on all sides, but somehow or 
other men began to find themselves using its nomen- 
clature and speaking of innate powers as part of the 
human constitution which were entirely unknown to 
the schools of their fathers and which would have 
shocked conservative circles to hear mentioned as 
worthy of philosophical consideration. If any one 
wishes to verify this statement for himself, let him 
take up our modern philosophers, Bain, Spencer, 
Darwin, and see what they are willing to acknowl- 
edge as primitive faculties, and then compare them 
with the classification of their philosophical prede- 
cessors, and he will be surprised to find how many 
faculties are now thought to be a part of our consti- 
tution which before were totally ignored. It is a fact 
evident to all who have studied the phrenological 
system that many of the faculties which they were 
the first to analyze and describe have been secretly 
appropriated by metaphysicians and scientists with- 
out even an acknowledgment. The most honest and 
candid of modern philosophers in this respect, how- 
ever, is Professor Bain, of Edinburgh, a philosopher 
whose books on the " Emotions and the Will " and 
"The Study of Character" entitle him to a very high 
rank among that class of philosophers who have 
directed their energies and investigations to the solu- 
tion of the difficult problems of the most useful of 



THE TRUE BASIS. i $ 

all the sciences, the science of human character. But 
it will become evident to any careful reader of Phre- 
nology and of Bain's works that much of his reason- 
ing and classification has been drawn from or sug- 
gested by the fathers of Phrenology. 

INFLUENCE ON MODERN THOUGHT. 

The doctrine of the innate powers of mind as 
taught by the phrenologist has great value in any 
system of morals, hence Combe's " Moral Philosophy" 
and "Constitution of Man" were the natural outcome 
of his study of Phrenology, and as these books were 
widely circulated in their day they have had an in- 
fluence direct and indirect on our modern ethics. 

Another science, the science of Ethnology, has had 
a flood of light thrown upon it by Phrenology. Under 
its principles this science has assumed a sure and def- 
inite character. The characters of the various races 
of men have been analyzed and classified. Regional 
phrenology has been accepted as an indispensable 
element in the study of this science, even by those 
who object to organological phrenology. The classi- 
fication of the characters of the people of the various 
nations has an important bearing upon the art of 
diplomacy, and it would be well if this department 
were more thoroughly developed. The revival at 
the present time of the study of innate powers by 
Spencer and others is a movement if not due to 
Phrenology is at least anticipated by Phrenology. 
The views of Spencer and modern scientists, that, no 
matter about the genesis of the faculties, we have in- 



104 



HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 



stincts which are closely related to those in animals — 
thus that the instinct which causes the squirrel to 
hoard his food is that which in man gives the love to 
acquire property — is nothing more than what Phre- 
nology taught years ago. The modern scientists take 
up some of our instincts and discuss them somewhat 
in detail, but much of what they say can be found in 
the works of the phrenologists. It is not my aim to 
prove that modern scientists have not added anything 
to the science of mind either in the way of clearer 
definition or demonstration ; far be it from me to slur 
in the least the earnest effort of modern philosophers 
to solve the different problems in the science of char- 
acter, but in the name of impartiality I do protest 
against all egotistical efforts on the behalf of modern 
philosophers to glide over or ignore the truths of 
Phrenology to which they are indebted directly or 
indirectly. 

The phrenological system has still much to offer 
modern science which can be pushed aside only to 
the detriment and delay of the study of human nat- 
ure. The genetic faculties of the human constitution 
are not only analyzed and described by the phreno- 
logical system, but they are connected with cere- 
bral development. Suppose we deny the truth of 
this cerebral connection, we can not shuffle aside the 
facts they have accumulated. These facts were col- 
lected during the lifelong labors of men of marked 
abilities for scientific investigation, and therefore de- 
serve our careful attention. Each instinct is sepa- 
rately considered, minutely described, and appropri- 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



105 



ately illustrated by facts gathered from the observation 
of the habits not only of men, but also of animals. 
The tendency of these facts is to support the prin- 
ciple that mentality depends for its manifestation 
upon cerebral development, that from the lowest to 
the highest creature living there is a dependence upon 
cerebral structure, that in the lower species the brain 
and nervous organization are smaller in size than in 
the higher. There is not only an advance in develop- 
ment of the encephalon as a whole, but there is a 
marked difference in the development of the respect- 
ive parts themselves. Thus, for instance, phrenolo- 
gists find that the parts of the encephalon which they 
connect with different instincts are wanting in some 
and present in other animals, as in the case of the 
instinct of locality, which gives a knowledge of dis- 
tance and direction, is large in birds which leave their 
homes for foreign countries in seasons when food can 
not be obtained, and is small in those birds which 
prefer to perish at home rather than fly to distant 
parts. So also the beaver, noted for its constructive- 
ness, has that organ large. The squirrel is an acquis- 
itive animal and has the organ of Acquisitiveness 
large ; while many animals that do not construct 
houses or lay up food for themselves are deficient in 
these organs. The cocfi has the organ of Combative- 
ness large and is noted for his pugnacity. 

Spencer discusses at particular length the relation 
of the inner to the outer environment. It seems to 
me that from the basis of the phrenological system a 
similar doctrine could be deduced. The phrenolo- 

5* 



I06 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

gists do not express their views in terms of the rela- 
tion of the inner to the outer environment, but they 
have given facts with respect to the action of the 
faculties which are well worthy of consideration at 
the present time. They hold that all the faculties 
they have discovered are not mere passive sensibil- 
ities, but all tend to actions, the larger having greater 
tendency to act than the smaller. These faculties 
can not be called into action by the influence of the 
will ; we can not fear, love, hate, or pity simply by 
willing it, but internal or external causes may stimu- 
late the nerve-centers, and whether we will or not 
the emotions will be felt. As, for instance, how often 
do we feel an uncontrollable trembling of the body 
and signs of fear when placed in circumstances of 
danger. This is because the instinct of cautiousness 
is awakened by the circumstances of the outer envi- 
ronment which has the appearance of danger. In this 
and other cases we have the action of the outer phe- 
nomena upon the inner instinct and the corresponding 
effect, fear, which follows. There is a doctrine taught 
in one of our prominent universities (Harvard) that 
the signs, such as the trembling of the body in fear 
and the billing and cooing of some animals in ex- 
pressing love, are not simply manifestations of innate 
powers, but are the very powers themselves. Not- 
withstanding that this doctrine is supported by one 
for whose learning and philosophical talents I have 
the deepest respect, yet it seems to be extremely ab- 
surd. It seems to me that such philosophers con- 
found the sign of an organ with the organ itself. 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



107 



NATURAL LANGUAGE OF FACULTIES. 

Every instinct has its own peculiar language, and 
the very fact that the language itself differs would 
prove a difference of instinct or emotion behind this lan- 
guage. The language is the effect of the excited in- 
stinct, it is its natural expression, but the language is 
not the instinct itself. Thus the varied language of 
Amativeness : the billing and cooing in pigeons, the pet- 
ting and caressing among animals, are not the amative 
propensity, but only its natural language. The crim- 
son blush which steals over the cheeks of a modest 
maiden is the expression of self-consciousness or act- 
ive love of approbation, but it is not the faculty 
itself. The true principle is rather that the instincts 
and their manifestations form a cycle. The excited 
instinct manifests itself in its own peculiar language, 
and this language by a sort of reflex action excites 
the instinct, so that when the language is presented 
to an instinct or emotion, that instinct or emotion 
will be awakened and will express itself in actions of 
the body or the voice. We have here a principle 
which in application is of the utmost importance 
especially in elocution and oratory, for we may arouse 
the emotion, not by willing that the emotion should 
be aroused, but by assuming the language of the emo- 
tion. The best way to feel angry is to put ourselves 
in the environment necessary to produce anger, viz. : 
assume the gestures of face and body and the tones 
of voice which are the language of anger ; this gives 
the external manifestation of anger ; the internal will 



I08 H 0W TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

be developed by the external, and also by putting 
oneself in mental attitudes which stimulate anger, 
i. e.y to think over all the reasons we have for being 
angry, the slights we have received, etc. If we wish 
to restrain anger we withdraw ourselves from all the 
attitudes, both external and internal, of anger, and 
endeavor to stimulate the emotions which are of an 
opposite nature to those of anger. Although few 
phrenologists have treated the expression of the in- 
stincts in this way, yet I think I am justified in draw- 
ing such deductions from their mental classification. 

Phrenology throws light also on that puzzling ques- 
tion in psychology, how it was possible to feel anger 
and compassion at the same time. Any one who has 
studied himself or other people carefully, will find 
that there often rages in our bosoms at the same 
time two or more instinctive promptings — voices let 
us call them ; one calls in one direction, while another 
prompts in just the opposite direction. Shakespeare, 
with that natural poetic instinct which has often put 
to shame the metaphysical philosopher by its deep 
insight into human character, illustrates this principle 
in the case of young Gobbo, whom he represents as 
in great perplexity whether to obey the voice of his 
conscience and return to his master the Jew, or fol- 
low the voice of his feelings, or, as he calls it, the 
council of the fiend, and run away. 

So we have often felt the desire to punish an of- 
fender and have felt at the same time an instinct of 
kindness calling on us to spare the guilty, and thus 
there is in our constitution, in general, a conflict of 



THE TRUE BASIS. 109 

instincts which restrain each other. This doctrine 
of the mental combat of instincts is due to Phre- 
nology, and is in harmony with observed facts and the 
common practice of mankind. Nor does Phrenology 
stop here ; it settles that most important question in 
ethics, which instincts in our nature should have the 
supremacy ; it shows clearly that the highest develop- 
ment of our race consists in harmonious organization, 
and that in order that there may be harmony the 
higher faculties should prevail. 

BAIN DISCUSSED. 

It was my intention to have discussed Prof. Bain 
extensively, but I am sorry to say that space and 
time will not allow me. In his book on the study 
of character, he begins by stating that he will give 
the analysis of the human character according to the 
phrenological system. It is to be regretted that Bain 
did not carry out his intention. While he gives the 
organs and their location according to the phreno- 
logical method, the facts supporting the location of 
these organs and the nature of their functions he does 
not give according to Phrenology, but steers out into 
a system of self-conscious reflection upon each indi- 
vidual organ, and attempts to show the errors in the 
classification. Now, this would not have been objec- 
tionable if he had not stated that he would give the 
phrenological system. He would have dealt more 
fairly with Phrenology if he had reserved his criti- 
cisms and made them in connection with his own sys- 
tem. It is not a matter of great importance to those 



IIO HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

who have studied the systematic works on Phrenol- 
ogy, but it has a tendency to mislead the novice in 
phrenological principles who is apt to believe that all 
the evidence which phrenologists bring to prove each 
organ is given by Bain and annihilated by him. Yet 
I have many objections to make against Bain's criti- 
cisms of the faculties thus presented, but have not 
time to do so. As a systematic exposition of charac- 
ter Bain's book is a successful production, and shows 
how far a person of intelligence can become a phre- 
nologist even by a system of mental introspection. 
Bain could be taken as a fair phrenologist, though 
he professes to steer clear of such methods of investi- 
gation ; but to take his book as one of the best phren- 
ological books, or as the best on the study of human 
character, would be a great blunder. No one can 
form a correct estimate of Phrenology by a perusal 
of Bain. He proposes to follow the self-conscious 
method of investigation. He admits the correctness 
of the phrenological method, but refuses to follow it 
because too laborious. Now, this is the secret cause 
of the errors he falls into himself, and of the mistakes 
he makes in attacking the phrenological classification. 
Let no one therefore imagine for a moment that Bain 
has taken up the gauntlet thrown down by Gall and 
Spurzheim during their career and as defiantly thrown 
down by all phrenologists since. No, Bain does not 
undertake to prove Phrenology imperfect by methods 
of induction, but by self-introspection. Those who 
are doubtful as to the efficiency of the self-con- 
scious method to determine the genetic powers of 



THE TRUE BASIS. m 

mind, I refer to what I have said upon this subject 
in the early part of this essay. I must hasten to give 
a concise criticism of Bain. 

Professor Bain having stated clearly the method he 
intended to pursue, gives the phrenological organs in 
order and files objections against some and acknowl- 
edges others as correct. His main attack is on the 
description of the functions of the organs given by 
the phrenologists. Now, it appears to me that much 
of the discussion arises from the difficulty the phre- 
nologists found in getting words to define accurately 
the functions which the observed facts indicated. 
Such confusion occurs in every system and is not 
confined to Phrenology. Still there is a seeming in- 
justice on the part of Bain, because he does not ac- 
knowledge that many of the points he treats and the 
objections he makes, were already discussed among 
the phrenologists themselves ; and because the argu- 
ments which Bain uses, giving his readers to under- 
stand that they are the products of his own mind, are 
in many cases arguments which were brought forward 
by the phrenologists themselves in their endeavors to 
get a terminology to correspond with the facts ob- 
served. 

The phrenologists have avoided as much as possi- 
ble mere strife of words ; it is the facts alone they 
concern themselves about ; so even if Bain's criticism 
has succeeded in anything it has not been in disprov- 
ing the facts or principles of the science, but only 
some errors or cross-divisions of function of the or- 
gans. If Bain had given the phrenologists a better 



II2 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

terminology, he might have done something ; but 
while he has shown much ability in endeavoring to 
tear down the fabric erected by Phrenology, he has 
not shown unerring skill in his reconstruction of the 
system. 

I have said that many of the objections urged 
against the phrenological classification and organ- 
ology by Bain may be found in the phrenological 
works themselves. Thus, for instance, Bain has long 
discussions to make about whether the absence of 
one faculty would lead to the manifestation of the 
opposite function, as, for example, if Combativeness 
were absent would timidity or fear be the conse- 
quence, or is it necessary to have a new organ for 
fear under the name of Cautiousness ? Now, this 
mode of discussion is found among the phrenologists 
themselves, and if Bain had taken the trouble to look 
into Gall's works he would have found that Gall had 
the same opinion as he himself entertains. So also 
Bain thinks that the organs of Size and Form ought 
to be made into one and called extension or space. 
But if he had consulted Gall and not confined his 
reading to Combe he would have found that Gall had 
already denominated these organs as extension or 
space. Many other points which Bain brings up as 
objections to be made against Phrenology are really 
not objections against the science, but against some 
of the metaphysical disquisitions of George Combe. 
Indeed Bain, in many of his arguments, shows much 
of the same acumen as is shown by almost every per- 
son who begins the study of Phrenology, but has not 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



113 



sufficient leisure to pursue it according to its methods 
of investigation. He constantly betrays his insuffi- 
cient knowledge of the fathers of Phrenology, and 
oftentimes he gets involved in his own metaphysical 
subtilty and can not disengage himself from it. Then 
again he forgets that he had started out with the in- 
tention of evolving Phrenology from the internal 
depths of his own self- consciousness, and makes 
statements and arguments which can only be drawn 
from observation. Indeed, his system is a mixture of 
two conflicting elements. Bred in the schools of phi- 
losophy which recognized the introspective method 
as the only process of investigating the mind, he 
seems at one time about to throw off its trammels 
and soar on the wings of induction into the region of 
clear proof, then he suddenly flops down again and is 
willing to accept as proved many things which the 
general consciousness of man can not harmonize. 
Thus while he agrees that many of the instincts and 
propensities recognized by Phrenology are innate 
powers in the constitution of man, self-consciousness 
testifying to the fact, he makes exceptions to some, 
and yet it is peculiar that many of those organs which 
he accepts are ones less clearly demonstrated by the 
introspective method. 

ILLUSTRATIONS OF BAIN'S METHOD. 

For example, he is willing to recognize, nay, he is 
absolutely positive, that Alimentiveness, which gives 
a taste and relish for food, is a primitive faculty. It 
is a favorite method of his, upon other occasions, to 



H4 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER j OR, 

show that some of the phrenological faculties are 
explainable by supposing their seat to be in the body 
and not in the brain centers. Now, what faculty is 
more connected with the body than Alimentiveness ? 
Could we not account for the love of food and the 
desire to satisfy hunger and thirst purely from bodily 
feelings? The claims of the body for food and drink 
are imperious. The stomach gnaws with irresistible 
craving for something to feed upon, and the sense of 
want may be nothing more than the desire of an 
empty stomach. And besides, the love and relish for 
different kinds of food may be only the result of the 
delicate discrimination of the tongue. The existence 
of an organ of Alimentiveness is, therefore, by the 
self-conscious method of argumentation which Bain 
skillfully employs upon other occasions, totally unnec- 
essary. 

There are many other organs which Bain acknowl- 
edges which could be objected to upon the evidence 
of self-consciousness ; but I must hasten to consider 
some other of his statements. He displays a very 
confused conception of the two phrenological organs of 
Love of Approbation and Self-esteem. He thinks that 
as presented by the phrenologists they neutralize each 
other. He can not see that there is any great differ- 
ence between being confident of our own powers and 
esteeming ourselves, our personal identity and all we 
ca 1 o .i own, as anything distinct from the instinct 
of approbation, which desires the praise of others. 
Now it seems to us that there is a clear and necessary 
distinction made here by the phrenologists, which 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



"5 



Bain fails to grasp. It is something very different to 
have a selfish pride in our own abilities, and to desire 
the approbation of others. In other words, the ego- 
tist who is satisfied with himself and cares not a straw 
about the opinions of others, is different from the 
sycophant, who desires to be esteemed by others, and 
whose character manifests itself very often in vanity 
and in a fawning, cringing disposition. There are 
persons who, rather than be deprived of the esteem 
and praise of others, will surrender their own views 
and adapt their conduct and opinions to please those 
whose commendation they value. Cicero is a good 
example of those whose character is influenced by 
the love of approbation ; he was always troubled 
about what the people, and especially what fut- 
ure generations, would say concerning him. Much 
could be said regarding the marked difference be- 
tween the conceit which makes us esteem all things 
belonging to us and the vanity which desires the 
praise of others ; but I must glance at some other of 
Professor Bain's exceptions to Phrenology; for in- 
stance, his comments on Philoprogenitiveness, Com- 
bativeness, Secretiveness, and Acquisitiveness. 

PHILOPROGENITIVENESS. 4 

In the treatment of this organ, Bain pursues his 
usual method of trying to account for all the mani- 
festations ascribed to it by Phrenology. He very 
elaborately argues that the function of Philoprogeni- 
tiveness, pre and simple, is so narrow in its scope that 
the organ may be eliminated from the analysis of the 



1 1 6 HO W TO STUDY CHA RA C TEK ; 0A\ 

human constitution. In his mind, the love of the 
beautiful, the tender sentiment, the sentiment of 
power, the habit of bestowing care, the scope of 
ideality, and the self-regarding sentiments generally, 
all concur in producing the parental emotion. 

Now, let us examine for a moment the effect of all 
these powers to produce parental love, and discover, 
if we can, whether they account for all the feeling 
embraced under this organ. In the first place, Bain 
wishes us to understand that one element in parental 
love is the parent's love of the beautiful ; that is, an 
infant or grown child is so full of natural beauty that 
a mother can not help loving it ; in other words, the 
mother's attraction toward the child is because it is 
beautiful. There are but few parents who would 
concur in such an explanation of their love. 

How often does parental love manifest itself more 
strongly in tender and affectionate regards for their 
most deformed and homely offspring. The cripple, 
the ill-favored daughter, are oftentimes more loved 
than the sound and well-formed children. The ten- 
der sentiment might form an element in the case of 
deformed or weakly-developed children as a motive of 
parental love ; but why should it operate exclu- 
sively so as to produce that pride and anxious love 
which one has for their own offspring? Under the 
promptings of the tender emotion, mothers ought to 
love other children as well as their own. The tender 
emotion, from its very nature, does not seek out any 
one particular object on which to bestow affection. 
It is the feeling which is an element in the love one 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



117 



individual bears to another, irrespective of age or sex. 
Why, therefore, should it give rise to exclusive love 
for children, which is a characteristic of a true 
mother? The sentiment designated tender emotion 
by Bain is too general in its scope to offer any solu- 
tion of the problem of parental love. It is one of 
those metaphysical terms, like memory and percep- 
tion, which embraces too much to be of any practical 
use in an analysis of mind. What we want is not 
general terms, but individual elements. We are seek- 
ing the root-germs of those feelings which build up 
the vast fabric of human thought and activity. Ten- 
der emotion has no specific direction ; it is as much 
an element in Amativeness, Adhesiveness, Benevo- 
lence, and Conjugal Love as it is in Philoprogenitive- 
ness, and therefore fails to account for parental love 
even when taken in combination with the other 
sources mentioned by Bain. Nor does the senti- 
ment of power explain all that is embraced under the 
organ of Philoprogenitiveness. To say that a mother 
loves her children because they submit to her author- 
ity, is an assertion which few mothers would admit ; 
oftentimes the most disobedient and unruly are not 
only loved, but are even enviable pets. And it is also 
a truth, which every observer of human character has 
witnessed, that mothers in whom parental love is 
strong spoil their children through overweening affec- 
tion. Besides, we have here in this endeavor of Bain 
to account for parental love by other sources than a 
pure and simple instinct, a combination of the most 
conflicting sentiments, all operating as elements to 



1 1 8 HOW TO STUD Y CHA RA CTER ; OR, 

produce a feeling of affection for one object. Where 
has Professor Bain bestowed his metaphysical con- 
sistency in this case ? We are asked, first of all, to 
regard the love of children as a product of the senti- 
ment of the beautiful ; then comes in tender emo- 
tion, and then that most antagonistic sentiment — the 
love of authority; and all these are to concur in pro- 
ducing parental love. When we reflect that each of 
these sources, singly and in combination, may all be 
directed alike to love any person, how can we say that 
they account for that strong feeling in a true moth- 
er's breast which history and observation show burns 
with an undying brilliancy, which has made many a 
woman lay down her own life for her offspring? 

If we leave metaphysical speculation for a moment 
and apply a little common-sense observation, we shall 
find the organ for the love of offspring fully estab- 
lished ; but Bain objects to the employment of ob- 
servation. He puts aside the evidence supplied by 
Dr. Gall and says that the old method employed by 
metaphysicians is the best way to solve the problem. 
This method consisted of a series of questions ad- 
dressed to the consciousness or experience of moth- 
ers. Now, upon what authority does Bain declare 
this to be exclusively the metaphysical method, and 
not recognized by phrenologists? In addition to ob- 
servations made upon the cranium of persons noted 
for peculiar talents, Drs. Gall, Spurzheim, and Combe 
not only interrogated these persons individually as to 
their characteristics, but also instituted inquiries among 
their friends and neighbors concerning the traits 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



II 9 



of character of the persons examined. Now surely 
this method, if not the same as that employed by the 
old school, was a great deal more scientific, inasmuch 
as its field of operation was wider and the opportu- 
nity to make and verify such interrogations exceed- 
ingly good. Here Bain evidently has made a vigor- 
ous attempt to destroy the organ of Philoprogenitive- 
ness by the self-introspective method, but without 
success ; and, finding that metaphysical subtility can 
only offer a few suggestions which might account for 
parental love, he begins to feel the necessity for some 
surer ground, some more definite proof, a feeling 
which many an astute philosopher has felt before 
him ; but unfortunately Bain seeks that proof in a 
return to the old school of metaphysics, and declaims 
against Dr. Gall's method. 

If it were not for anticipating matter which I will 
treat of hereafter, I would show how inconsistent 
Bain is in making this statement when contrasted 
with certain admissions or concessions made to Phre- 
nology in other parts of his book. It is evident 
that at this stage of the discussion Bain does not 
grasp the full value of Gall's method of investigation. 
He does not clearly see that the highest proof we can 
have for anything is positive and negative proof. It 
is strange that one so fond of mathematics as Profes- 
sor Bain can not comprehend how valuable the signs 
plus and minus are. What more convincing proof 
can be found than positive and negative evidence? 
Since the days of Gall his method of proof has become 
in experimental philosophy the predominant and al- 



120 BOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

most' the sole one, with this difference only: whereas 
Gall took his subjects for examination as nature sup- 
plied them, the experimental school produces artificial 
subjects ; but the evidence is the same in both cases, 
positive and negative. For explanation of this proof 
and an estimate of its value, I must refer the reader 
to an earlier part of this essay. If we have failed to 
arrive at a knowledge of an organ for parental love 
by self-introspection, there is nothing left for us but 
to fall back upon Dr. Gall's method. 

By a series of observations instituted upon men 
and women noted for their love of children and those 
not remarkable for such love, Gall has laid before the 
scientific world facts which strongly prove that the 
love of children is an innate power in the human 
constitution. 

The experience of all phrenologists since Gall points 
to the same conclusion. It has been my lot to meet 
many exemplary mothers who loved their children 
even better than their own lives. In all of them the 
phrenological organ was large. They would have re- 
pudiated with scorn the insinuation that they loved 
their children because of their beauty, or because 
they were submissive to their authority ; they loved 
them as the magnet draws the filings, because there 
was a bond of union. This bond of union was an 
instinct in them which caused them to love their own 
offspring as such. I do not wish to extend this dis- 
cussion any further; but would it not be interesting 
to attempt to apply Bain's hydra solution of parental 
love to account for the strength of that function in 



THE TRUE BASIS. I2 i 

some animals ? Does the cat, for instance, love its 
kittens because they are beautiful or submissive to 
her authority? And does the cuckoo lay her eggs 
in another bird's nest and take no further care of her 
young because she is afraid they will not be beautiful 
or will not submit to her authority? 

COMBATIVENESS. 

The function of this organ Prof. Bain elaborates 
fully and clearly. He is almost persuaded that it is 
properly localized, and is inclined to recognize it as 
an element in our constitution. His exposition of its 
scope and function is masterly, and shows a power of 
keen analysis. He discovers the combative propen- 
sity to be made up of two distinct ingredients : the 
superabundance of central energy, and the love of 
power in its most wide guise : successful rivalry. He 
criticises George Combe's definition of Combative- 
ness at certain stages of his delineation of this organ. 
But it seems to us that the objections to Combe's 
definition urged by Bain spring from a failure upon 
the part of Bain to comprehend exactly what Combe 
intends to convey ; in other words, Bain puts an un- 
fair (not intentionally, Bain is too much of a Scotch- 
man for that,) interpretation upon Combe's definitions. 

When Combe declares that the propensity of Com- 
bativeness is necessary even for philanthropic schemes, 
he does not mean the pure pleasure of fighting, but 
simply means that Combativeness supplies courage 
in advancing those schemes, and the power to resist 
all opposing obstacles. There is no difficulty, as 
6 



122 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

Bain declares that there is, in ascertaining whether a 
man is combative or not when a motive influences 
him to undertake some courageous enterprise. There 
are motives which enlist every faculty of our consti- 
tution, and yet we do not find any difficulty in sepa- 
rating the adjuncts or supports of that motive. We 
know perfectly well, for instance, that Luther was 
exceedingly combative, and that Melancthon was 
not. There was the same motive : both sought 
to reform the Church, but both were not equally 
bold. Luther feared neither man nor devil, but 
Melancthon shrank back even from a public avowal 
of his faith. When the combative Luther was 
by his side, Melancthon displayed a good deal of 
courage; but when Luther died, Melancthon com- 
pletely broke down. Now here were two men, both 
inspired by the same motive, yet the difference of 
their combative spirit was very great. Was not the 
combative temper of Luther of immense aid in prop- 
agating his religious reforms? There is no difficulty 
in deciding which was the more combative, Melanc- 
thon or Luther ; for the physical development of the 
back-head of each is a perfect revelation. 

A mere novice in portrait-reading ought to be 
ashamed to say that he can discover no difference 
between Melancthon's and Luther's Combativeness. 
We would differ also, in some respects, as regards the 
definition given by Prof. Bain that the combative 
principle is the love of power in its most wide guise, 
successful rivalry. That there is an element of power 
in this propensity we admit, but it is different from 



TJTE TRUE BASIS. 123 

the power enumerated under the function of self- 
esteem. 

It is a power of resistance to aggression, not a feel- 
ing of authority. The feeling of triumph which 
arises whenever a successful combatant defeats his 
opponent is incidental to the combative propensity, 
and would arise upon the success of any other of our 
faculties. The martial ardor displayed by troops, the 
love of debate, the spirit of contention which char- 
acterizes some men, is the real element in Combat- 
iveness rather than a feeling of power. And if Prof. 
Bain would carefully ponder the definition given by 
phrenologists, that all our faculties have various de- 
grees of activity, from a low state of manifestation 
to a high or passional state, much of the confusion 
incident to criticising the phrenological analysis 
would vanish. Combativeness may, for instance, 
sometimes only display the simple element of resist- 
ance, or it may give way to a higher state of activity, 
exemplified in a spirit of aggressiveness, or it may 
become intensely passionate, and develop a pugna- 
cious spirit in which the love of fight rules supreme, 
and outweighs all other considerations. It is not, 
therefore, necessary, as Bain seems to think, that 
when we speak of an element of pugnacity, that that 
element should prevail upon all occasions. 

In the case, for instance, of a John Howard being 
aided in his philanthropic measures by a combative 
spirit, it is not necessary that we should find the pug- 
nacious element, but simply the element of resist- 
ance displayed. We could extend these remarks 



I2 4 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

further, and meet some other of Bain's objections 
under this organ, but we have a wide field to cover. 

SECRETIVENESS. 

As we have dwelt at some length upon Bain's 
method of argumentation in our treatment of the 
organ of Philoprogenitiveness, we can not repeat his 
arguments in connection with Secretiveness, nor can 
we discuss his objections in detail. He asserts, how- 
ever, his unbelief in Secretiveness as a distinct element 
in our constitution. His proof is simply the same old 
story: he thinks that the habit of forethought, ex- 
perience, and prudence will account for all the differ- 
ence found in persons with respect to the manifesta- 
tion of Secretiveness. We admit that habit and ex- 
perience do develop Secretiveness ; but at the same 
time, every habit of a specific direction must in- 
fluence some nerve-center. Habits never originate 
the germal elements — they can only cultivate those 
elements. Granted an instinct to conceal or secrete, 
and we can easily conceive of a person's increasing 
that capacity by habits of association, by prudential 
spirit derived from pleasure or pain or from expe- 
rience ; but how that instinct can be created by these 
habits without having a cerebral center is puzzling. 
If the tendency to conceal is so distinct an element 
in character that Bain confesses that even he has ob- 
served that some have more of it in their character 
than others, it seems as if there ought to be a cere- 
bral center ; for in the first place, it is a well-known 
truth of physiology, that whenever an action or move- 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



125 



ment, bodily or mentally, is made, responsive muscles 
or nerves take on the impress of that action, and be- 
come larger or more compact. That is, there can be 
no feeling, thought, or emotion developed without 
affecting responsive nerve-centers, so that these nerve- 
centers or brain convolutions must take on a change 
of structure, either an enlargement of the cells of the 
brain convolutions, or become firmer in quality. 
Now, suppose we develop Secretiveness by associa- 
tion, prudent conduct, experience, or any other 
method of the psychologist, where do the impressions 
heap themselves up — all over the brain, or in one 
quarter of it ? If all over the brain, then Bain may 
be correct in assigning Secretiveness to habits of as- 
sociation of other faculties, but it is highly improb- 
able. Nerve-centers do not perform dissimilar func- 
tions. There is, as far as we can discern, special 
cerebral centers for special functions. The best way 
then to solve a difficulty, like the problem of innate 
Secretiveness, when the psychological method has 
failed, is to follow up investigations after the method 
of Gall, into the function of certain parts of the brain. 
These investigations, as carried on by phrenologists, 
may well make us pause, and consider that if we 
would only all set out with zeal in pushing on a 
method which has discovered so much, we might 
soon bring to perfection the science of mind and 
character. 

Our own observation of men and animals, and also 
self-introspection, has revealed, beyond dispute, the 
fact that some animals are noted for cunning and 



126 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

some are not. If habits, or prudential measures, or 
experience, had anything to do by way of creating this 
secretive propensity, then why did it develop in some 
and not in others ? Why, for instance, should races 
of animals living in the same region, in the same en- 
vironment, and subjected to the same kind of dan- 
gers, yet display entirely opposite characteristics in 
this respect ? We can only solve this question by 
saying that those animals noted for their cunning or 
Secretiveness possessed it as an inborn element in 
their constitution, which their manner of life helped 
to bring out and cultivate. Those who are not re- 
markable for this quality must have had but a slight 
endowment, or none at all. There is no reason, then, 
why we should not examine the data laid before us 
by phrenologists, and add to it as much as we can 
accumulate by observation, and decide this question 
upon such evidence. 

ACQUISITIVENESS. 

In Professor Bain's discussion of Acquisitiveness 
there is nothing new. It is simply the old metaphys- 
ical method of accounting for this function by the 
love of power, the necessity of accumulation, or the 
benefits incident upon the acquisition of wealth. He 
asserts that all of these influences operating sepa- 
rately, or in combination, will produce the function 
of hoarding assigned to the organ of Acquisitiveness. 
If it were permitted me to meet Bain by a reference 
to the phrenological methods of proof, it would be an 
easy matter to dispense with all his objections at once. 



THE TRUE BASIS. \ 2 J 

But as I said I would meet him on his own ground 
I am obliged to discuss the point metaphysically. 
Nevertheless it will be impossible to go over the 
whole range of metaphysical subtility in the discus- 
sion of each organ. Much of the argumentation 
which I have employed under the discussion of the 
functions of other organs is applicable to this. I 
can, therefore, only mention a few strong points 
which lead us to infer that the function of Acquisi- 
tiveness is a real element in the constitution of man. 
It is obvious to all that many individuals possess an 
exceedingly avaricious spirit, not only in great mat- 
ters, such as wealth-power, but even in small things. 
Some are greedy and avaricious for mere trifles, which 
have no value in themselves, and do not exalt those 
who possess them in power or influence. We can as- 
sign no motive whatever, and, least of all, any of the 
great motives mentioned by Bain, to account for this 
avaricious disposition. How many persons, for in- 
stance, keep a tight hold of everything they acquire, 
from a golden fortune to a cast-off garment ! There 
is no real necessity in the retention of many things 
which the wealthy retain. The love of power, the 
necessity of existence, ought to weigh equally with 
all classes, yet we find a vast difference between men 
in the hoarding capacity. Some people hoard where 
there is no possibility of gaining popularity and 
power, and where the necessities of life are even sac- 
rificed to the all-engrossing passion for accumulation. 
The character of the miser, pure and simple, can not 
be accounted for by any of the principles laid down 



128 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

by Bain. The instincts of animals also throw much 
light upon this subject. We must admit that the 
necessity for existence is equally important to an 
animal life ; yet the squirrel, the bee, and the ant are 
more acquisitive than a very large class of animals. 
Shall we trace this acquisitiveness in the squirrel or 
bee to the fact that they have more wisdom to see 
the necessity of laying up a store for the coming 
winter? This is hardly the case, for the animals 
which do not acquire are just as intelligent as those 
who do. The difference is in an elementary instinct. 
That is the way the squirrel, bee, and ant provide for 
themselves. Other animals may make provision for 
themselves in some other way. 

There is, again, the feeling of kleptomania, or 
shop-lifting, which is practiced oftentimes by those 
who have all the wealth necessary to give them power, 
influence, etc. To say with Bain that these are 
merely eccentricities, does not materially alter the 
fact. We are as much required to explain upon 
what such eccentricities depend, as to explain the 
generic function of any organ. Then, again, if the 
principles laid down by Prof. Bain are capable of in- 
ducing the propensity to hoard, and the more these 
influences sway a person, the more acquisitive that 
person will become, the question may reasonably be 
asked, how is this acquisition recorded ? Why does 
the function become more keen the more it is exer- 
cised, and what part of the brain is called into activ- 
ity in order to record this development ? Bain might 
reply to this question that no particular part of the 



THE TRUE BASIS. I2 q 

brain was exercised, but all parts. Then we would 
have the phenomena of the brain performing as a 
general function that which has a specific application. 
In other words, as Bain has previously admitted, that 
there are cerebral centers for primitive functions 
which are exercised by giving full scope to opera- 
tions which develop them, now he declares that a 
function which is seemingly elementary is performed 
by the brain as a whole. We will then have to estab- 
lish general functions as well as individual functions. 
Now, we can conceive of the mind acting as a whole 
in the operations of such general functions as those 
of conception, memory, etc., because they are only 
general processes connected with all the organs ; but 
when we are asked to consider the mind as acting as 
a whole to produce a hoarding spirit, it seems to be 
a direct violation of clear metaphysical analysis ; for, 
as I have said before, there is a physiological law that 
when a function is exercised the material organ of 
that function becomes larger or increases in quality. 
Now, does the whole brain become larger or more 
compact in order to take on a development of ac- 
quisitiveness, or would it not be more reasonable to 
suppose that a certain cerebral center recorded this 
acquisitive development? Remember, a spirit of 
avarice is a totally different thing from a law of asso- 
ciation or habit. We can conceive of such laws train- 
ing and educating all the faculties and leaving a gen- 
eral impression on the physical organism ; but when 
it comes to the fact that we have to make a feeling or 
propensity so elementary as that of acquisition, a 
6* 



^O HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

general power similar to these, it demands more met- 
aphysical demonstration than Prof. Bain supplies. 

It may be said, however, that Bain does not imply 
that the acquisitive faculty is a general power, but 
simply a specific habit generated by the influences 
which he has enumerated. The answer to this is ob- 
vious. All habits, as far as we know, leave their 
impression on the physical or cerebral organism ; 
thus, for instance, if we exercise any part of the body, 
that part becomes more compact or larger, and hence 
an increased capacity to perform the function follows 
upon this increase. So, if we exercise the organ of 
Comparison, there will be an increase of the analytical 
function due to an increase in the size or quality of 
the cerebral organ on which it depends. So if we 
start with an organ whose function is mere brute ac- 
quisition, without regard to the end or object of these 
acquisitions, we can conceive of its activity being in- 
creased by the motives enumerated by Bain, and that 
such an increase could be recorded by this organ. 
But when we are asked to conceive of a propensity so 
elementary as the disposition to hoard to be entirely 
originated by certain general influences, there is no 
reasonable explanation, — it is like expecting soil to 
bring forth flower and fruit where there has been no 
seed planted, because the sun and rain have been beat- 
ing upon that soil. This whole question of how far 
general laws or individual influences can create spe- 
cific or elementary functions is a puzzling one to 
the metaphysician, and I can not enter upon it here 
in detail. It is sufficient to say that the psychologi- 



THE TR UE BA SIS. \ 3 1 

cal method of accounting for individual differences of 
function by operation of general laws has failed upon 
many occasions. The psychological analysis pro- 
duced by this method has had to change its funda- 
mental powers repeatedly. The tendency at present 
is to rely less upon general laws for a solution of in- 
dividual characteristics, and to ascribe them to fun- 
damental instincts. Our impression is that there is 
an innate propensity to hoard in the human con- 
stitution. 

We should like to take up Bain's exceptions to 
the other phrenological organs in detail, but we must 
hasten to discuss a very important division of Bain's 
book, 

"THE OMISSIONS OF PHRENOLOGY." 

Professor Bain has a chapter devoted to the subject 
of " The Omissions of Phrenology." Many of his com- 
ments and suggestions in this chapter are highly valu- 
able, and demand careful attention from the advocates 
of Phrenology. I think, however, the title of his 
chapter is misleading, as it seems to imply a willful 
rejection by phrenologists of the points he discusses ; 
whereas the truth is simply this : Gall and Spurz- 
heim were introducing a new method of investigating 
mind and character, and so, in arranging the mental 
analysis of the human constitution, some things were 
overlooked by them for the time being. These omis- 
sions are natural, and are incident to all sciences in 
their early stages of development. Of such a nature 
are the muscular feelings, which Bain declares the 
phrenologists have slighted. It is true that Drs. 



I32 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

Gall and Spurzheim have not gone into detail in 
regard to these feelings, but we must recollect that 
physiology was not so fully occupied in investigat- 
ing the important relations which the muscles and 
nerves of the body sustain to mental excitability in 
the days of Gall as in our time. The same may be 
said of the vocal powers and the department of sen- 
sation — including the senses of taste, sight, smell, and 
the tactile sensations of the skin — which Bain men- 
tions as omissions ; they are all departments of physi- 
ology, and ought to have been carefully treated by 
physiologists ; but as this had not been accomplished 
in the days of Gall and Spurzheim, the omission is 
not one of willful rejection, but simply of unavoid- 
able neglect. Nor is there anything in the treatment 
of the points proposed by Bain incompatible with or 
antagonistic to the principles of Phrenology, because 
Phrenology does not confine itself to psychology, but 
also includes physiology. Whatever suggestions, 
therefore, physiology has to make may be embodied 
by Phrenology as a part of its analysis of mind and 
body. In fact, some departments enumerated by Bain 
as omissions have been duly emphasized in the light 
of modern information by the phrenologists who have 
followed in the paths of Gall and Spurzheim. Pro- 
fessor Bain is an enthusiast in the department of 
muscular sensations, and has made an extensive study 
of the subject. Many of his suggestions are valuable, 
and can be allowed a place in the phrenological sys- 
tem without detracting in any way from the honor 
due to the early phrenologists. Still we can not 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



133 



concur with all he brings forward in the chapter 
under consideration. It is impossible, for instance, 
for those who have been trained to the keen analysis 
fostered by the phrenological method of investiga- 
tion to agree with Bain that the functions of the 
organs of Color and Form are implied in the func- 
tions of Locality, Size, and Individuality. What- 
ever errors have been made by phrenologists in their 
exposition of these organs, it is true that close 
analytical reasoning and investigation are in favor of 
a distinct and generic function for each of the organs 
enumerated. We can not say, for instance, that we 
remember the location of places because of their color, 
size, and form. There is implied in the function of 
Locality, elements of distance, position, and situation, 
which can not possibly be covered by form or color. 
I know that the metaphysical school lays great stress 
upon the element of color as a factor in the estima- 
tion of space, but observed facts do not sustain this 
conclusion. If a person were asked why he found 
his way so readily to a certain place, he would hardly 
reply that he recognized the colors or forms of the 
various objects on his way ; these might be accident- 
ally observed ; but the place was in his mind as a 
sort of mental picture as a whole, and not in individ- 
ual traits such as those supplied by form and color. 
When we start out to go to a place where we have 
been before, we have a sort of natural intuition of 
the place with respect to situation without any regard 
to individual characteristics either of color, form, or 
size. On the way, however, we may recognize these 



134 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

individual phenomena as a confirmation that we are 
treading the right path, but not as forming our specific 
notion of locality. 

The omission of a separate treatment of the vocal 
powers in connection with the phrenological system 
is to be regretted, and I do not think modern phre- 
nologists have done this subject full justice. Yet Pro- 
fessor Bain has only succeeded in throwing out a few 
hints in this department ; he has proved nothing, 
neither has he systematically treated the vocal pow- 
ers in their relation to the human constitution. We 
consider that the omission of the topic of vocality 
from any system which claims to be a science of mind 
and character is a very serious neglect. It is true that 
phrenologists have made many valuable suggestions 
in this department in their treatment of the functions 
of Language, Tune, and Time, but these remarks are 
only incidental, and not directed to this department 
as a separate subject. The value of an exposition of 
the voice, giving the situation of each physical mem- 
ber; the conditions of vocality; the relative size and 
position of each vocal member, and the quality of 
voice produced by each ; the manifestation of charac- 
ter in the voice, not in a general way, but specifically, 
is surely of the utmost importance in the delineation 
of character. All the organs of the human consti- 
tution have their natural language. This language 
consists of the gestures of the body and the tones 
of the voice, and all these gestures and tones should 
be carefully separated and assigned to their respective 
functions. Much valuable information may be gained 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



135 



upon this subject from books on Elocution, but the 
treatment of it by such books is quite empirical, not 
scientific. It would take too much time to convey 
any adequate conception of how this department 
should be worked up. In the present essay, I must 
therefore defer further comments, with the hope that 
I may be able to present on another occasion an 
essay on a system of Elocution and Oratory having 
its basis in the constitution of man. 

He files an objection against the explanation of 
.the organ of Benevolence as given by the phrenolo- 
gists. In his own system he recognizes an organ of 
sympathy. I will endeavor by the self-conscious 
method to meet Bain, not that I think the self-con- 
scious method of investigation is able of itself to 
settle the question ; but as that is the method Bain 
pursues, I desire to meet him on his own ground. 
Now, it seems to me at least, that according to self- 
introspection sympathy is a general power, and not a 
special instinct. How can we separate sympathy from 
any power, and make it a distinct instinct ? Do we 
not sympathize with those only who have feelings 
and sentiments in common with us ? Thus man can 
not sympathize with a monkey, because he can not 
enter into its feelings. Neither can an infidel sym- 
pathize with a spiritualist, because there is no bond 
of connection. Neither can the virtuous man sympa- 
thize with the profane sinner and evil-liver for the 
same reason. Sympathy depends much upon the 
power we have of entering into other people's 
thoughts and feelings, and this power depends upon 



136 HO W TO STUD Y CHA RA CTER ; OR, 

the relative number of faculties we have in common. 
Sympathy in the sense of pity is clearly performed 
by benevolence. Benevolence is the foundation of 
philanthropy, and if we admit an organ of Benevo- 
lence there is no necessity for an organ of sympathy, 
for benevolence acting with other faculties will give 
all that Bain places under sympathy. 

bain's organs of elocution and plot-interest. 

Professor Bain is still more ambitious in his at- 
tempts to evolve Phrenology from consciousness. 
He thinks there ought to be an organ of cadence or 
elocution. 

Now, I was very desirous at first to follow Bain in 
his views upon the necessity of an organ for elocution 
and evolve such an organ from my own conscious- 
ness, but I thought it only fair to hear those on this 
matter who might be expected to have a clearer con- 
ception of this subject than either Bain or myself, 
namely, professional elocutionists. I put the ques- 
tion to several well-known professors of the art of 
elocution, whether there was anything in elocution 
which might not be accounted for by tune and time. 
The answer was clear and unequivocal. These gen- 
tlemen showed me that the great difference between 
music and recited speech was a difference of pitch 
only, the former being discrete and the latter con- 
crete. All the varied harmony of music and intona- 
tions of speech depend upon the organs of Tune and 
Time. Bain's attempt, therefore, to evolve an organ 
of cadence by the self-conscious method seems to be a 



THE TRUE BASIS. 137 

failure. The difference which Bain observed between 
speech and music must have been the quality of the 
tones of the voice, although he does not clearly state 
that to be his view ; but if he had made a more thor- 
ough observation of great actors and orators, he 
would have discovered that all the difference in the 
quality of intonation was due to the peculiar effect 
of each of the phrenological faculties. The instincts 
and sentiments have all their effect upon the voice ; 
for example : Secretiveness muffles the voice, its nat- 
ural expression is a whisper ; bereavement is low and 
plaintive ; Veneration soft, subdued/ and reverential ; 
Destructiveness is sharp and guttural, and Self-esteem 
is hard, positive, and dogmatic, while Combativeness 
has abrupt, harsh, emphatic tones ; Sublimity gives 
depth, grandeur, swelling, and profound quality and 
quantity to the voice, and all the force of enunciation 
is on a grand scale ; Mirthfulness has light, playful 
tones ; and so on, every sentiment or propensity adds 
a certain coloring to the tones of the voice. It was 
probably from having observed all the various intona- 
tions of the voice which each individual faculty of 
the human constitution produced, that Bain was led 
to think that there ought to be an organ of elocution 
or cadence. But all the functions such an organ 
could perform can clearly^De ascribed to other fac- 
ulties. 

Bain having reached a certain height in his phreno- 
self-conscious method does not wish to surrender his 
elevation or remain there, but spreads his pinions 
wider and ends by introducing a new organ which he 



138 HOW TO STUD Y CHARA CTER ; OR, 

thinks will be a good addition to the phrenological 
system, called Plot-interest. Now, I should like to 
have such an organ made a part of the analysis of 
the human mind, but I am afraid if its existence de- 
pends upon the self-conscious method of investiga- 
tion, it will never exist. Plot-interest is only the 
effect of a combination of faculties, as, for example, 
in a novel the plot-interest depends upon the number 
and kind of sentiments and propensities excited by 
the events of the story. Thus benevolence will be 
aroused by the suffering of the various characters 
which are described in the story, and will anxiously 
watch the plot to see if the objects of its interest 
will be safe. So with the love of the marvelous, all 
things which are new, strange, and miraculous will be 
watched by it with intense interest. So with the 
organ of Cautiousness, dangers and hair-breadth 
escapes, gloomy caverns, and all kinds of adventures 
will be interesting to that faculty, and the plot-in- 
terest which appeals to it will be powerfully intensi- 
fied. So Combativeness will be aroused to activity 
by events of heroism and self-defense, descriptions of 
battles, etc. Veneration, Hope, Justice, and all the 
various faculties may be actively aroused by the inci- 
dents in the novel, and thus the plot-interest will be 
rendered intense. The more numerous the organs 
excited by the events in the novel, the more intense 
the plot-interest ; and besides there is one organ above 
all others which tends to deepen the plot-interest, the 
organ of Secretiveness, whose function is the desire 
to pry into hidden things. Now, the chief point of 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



1 39 



interest in a plot is to conceal the true nature and result 
of the story as much as possible, and concealment is 
highly delightful to Secretiveness, and much of the 
interest we have in a highly-drawn plot is due to the 
excitement of this faculty. Thus we see that plot- 
interest can be accounted for by the activity, more 
or less intense, of the sentiments and propensities, 
singly and in combination, and there is no necessity 
for a separate organ for plot-interest. 

Bain has some valuable suggestions to make upon 
the sentiment of love of truth. He claims that phre- 
nologists have not developed this sentiment suffi- 
ciently, and considers that the organ of Conscientious- 
ness, as set forth by Phrenology, does not cover 
entirely the domain of love of truth. 

It seems to us that Bain does succeed in develop- 
ing points omitted by the phrenologists in their treat- 
ment of this sentiment, but we can not concur with 
him in his rash statement that Phrenology, if she 
can make good any of her positions, ought to be able 
to discover something to indicate his distinctions. A 
science is not called upon to surrender her established 
truths because of omissions or imperfections ; if this 
is to be the test of Phrenology, then it is a test which 
will lay the axe at the root of every science, even 
at Bain's own system of phreno-self-introspection. 
Truths are not all discovered at one time or in mass, 
but one by one. If there is an organ for Love of 
Truth separate and distinct from any of the innate 
powers enumerated by Phrenology, time will show. 
But the statement of Professor Bain that if Phrenol- 



140 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

ogy can not make good his distinctions she can not 
make good any of her positions, is a very rash state- 
ment, unworthy of the great Edinburgh professor, 
and he must surely have departed from that quah 
ity of character so highly developed among his coun- 
trymen, a quality which has gained for them the 
world-wide reputation of the " canny Scots." While 
we must in the name of correct scientific investigation 
refuse to concur with Professor Bain that omissions 
in any system invalidate or destroy all the truths of 
that system, yet at the same time we are willing to 
consider how far his analysis of the sentiment of the 
love of truth indicates the necessity for a distinct 
cerebral center. He holds that George Combe's ex- 
position of the function of Concientiousness is but 
an ethical exposition, and he then asserts that the 
love of truth has a signification in the abstract (what- 
ever he means by that) which is different from the 
ethical. His comments are too long to quote, but 
his position is, that there is in the sentiment of truth 
an element of impartiality, a total disregard of con- 
clusions, whether favorable or unfavorable to precon- 
ceived notions or to the desires or the emotions. 
In brief, he means steadfast loyalty to truth for its 
own sake, which he considers different from moral 
obligation — the root element as set forth by Combe's 
treatment of Conscientiousness. Now, whether the 
function of Conscientiousness by a clearer definition 
can be made to embrace this abstract conception of 
truth or not is a very nice question. It may be, how- 
ever, that the distinction made by Bain is not a sepa- 



THE TRUE BASIS. I4I 

rate element in the constitution. We question much 
the statement that there are men who investigate 
truth with no leaning or prejudice toward some form 
of that truth. Men, by their training and by con- 
stitutional endowment, are prone to consider that 
the principles which seem evident to them are the 
only true principles.- The various systems of science 
and philosophy have had their origin because of prej- 
udice or constitutional tendencies. To get at truth 
in the abstract is a very difficult achievement, and has 
not yet been accomplished by Bain, or anybody else 
as far as we know. In fact, truth in the abstract, from 
its very nature, is undefinable ; it belongs to the same 
genera of conceptions as absolute virtue, goodness, 
purity, etc. We can only realize such states by con- 
trasting such conceptions with concrete existences. 
A sentiment for the love of truth in the abstract may 
be, after all, a visionary sentiment. The preponder- 
ance of the truth element not included under the 
function of Conscientiousness, may be a result of a 
more harmonious constitutional endowment. Thus, 
for instance, if we can conceive of a person whose 
intellectual faculties are in proportion to his emo- 
tional and animal faculties, then there will be an 
approximation to absolute truth in the judgments, 
thoughts, and conceptions of that individual. This 
adherence to truth, then, for truth's sake, would come 
not from any particular organ in the constitution, but 
from harmonious development of the entire man. In 
other words, the nearest approach a man can make 
to correctness of judgment, thought and conception is 



I4 2 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

made when such a one holds a parliament, as it were, 
of all the elements in his constitution, and decides 
after each has had its full voice in the matter. To 
illustrate this more concretely : suppose a person 
under the influence of Veneration, which is so fully 
developed that it is a leading characteristic of his con- 
stitution, all his judgments will be biased, more or 
less, by the promptings of that faculty. If he takes a 
stand in church matters, he may grasp that side of 
worship and church authority which appeals to his 
veneration. Perhaps his conception of true worship 
is a highly ritualistic service, and in combating for 
this kind of service, which nourishes but one element 
in his constitution, he sacrifices truth. The same 
may be said of all special developments: however 
much truth they discover in that particular depart- 
ment, such truth will be lacking in universality. 
Special developments of the innate powers will bias 
the judgment m favor of those elements, and abstract 
loyalty to truth can not prevail in such organizations. 
But suppose a man to exist who has a harmoniously 
balanced brain, properly trained and educated; he 
will accept as true only that which appears to satisfy 
all the cravings of his being. Such truth is the only 
approximation we, in this world, can make to absolute 
truth. And in such minds there dwells the quality 
spoken of by Bain — impartiality of investigation and 
loyalty to truth for its own sake. If our exposition 
of this rather obscure metaphysical subject is correct, 
there does not seem any necessity for any separate 
innate power distinct from Conscientiousness in the 



THE TRTTE BASIS. 143 

human constitution, such as Bain sets forth and de- 
nominates the Love of Truth. Conscientiousness, 
with a clearer definition, will sufficiently account for 
all other elements of Truth. 

Bain now passes on to show that the sensibility 
connected with the fine-arts, or what is called aes- 
thetic pleasure, whether realized by nature or pro- 
vided for by art, has not received full treatment at 
the hands of phrenologists. He accuses the phrenol- 
ogists of treating the fine-art feelings as if they were 
one, and traces a probable reason for this method of 
treatment to the prevailing opinion of philosophers in 
the days of Gall and Spurzheim, that the sentiment 
of the beautiful was one and indivisible. It is possi- 
ble that the early fathers did attribute too much to 
the organ of Ideality. This organ was then not di- 
vided into two innate powers as in recent works on 
Phrenology. The objections urged against Phrenology 
by Bain in this department, however, are not root errors 
detrimental to Phrenology as a system, but only con- 
fused definition which can easily be remedied. Pro- 
portion and harmony enter into all works of art more 
or less, as into a building, a painting, or a poem. 
Upon what does this feeling of proportion and har- 
mony .depend : on a special fundamental endowment ? 
or is it an element common to all the faculties ? The 
early phrenologists taught that Tune gave the sense 
of musical concord, Color the feeling of well-assorted 
tints in painting, Form the susceptibility to fine 
sculpture and the beauties of the human figure ; but 
Bain asserts they did not tell us what constitutes the 
pleasure of a fine poem. 



144 HOW T0 STUDY CHARACTER j OR, 

The solution of the difficulty is simply to be found 
in a proper comprehension of what the fine-art feel- 
ings are. We can not prove that any one of these 
feelings depends upon one innate faculty alone. In the 
Fine-arts a reproduction of nature, animate and inani- 
mate, is sought ; hence the faculties employed by an 
artist will be as various as the object selected. It would 
be impossible, for instance, to say that sculpture de- 
pended upon a feeling of symmetry, for that feeling 
is not individual — it is a general feeling, and belongs 
probably as much to the intellect as to the emotive 
nature ; but the basis of sculpture may be found in a 
just perception of forms and outlines of objects. The 
sculptor's aim is to transfer these living outlines into 
marble, and here the intellect will come in, supply- 
ing comparison and the ability to construct or repro- 
duce. 

An epic poem like " Paradise Lost " or Homer's 
" Iliad," is not the product of any one faculty ; every 
organ of the mind supplies its quota. The distin- 
guishing feature, however, is the presence of the sub- 
lime or beautiful. The material supplied by the in- 
tellect and emotive nature is colored by the organ of 
Sublimity, or Ideality, and this coloring is what en- 
ables us to say whether a poem is an epic, a satire, 
or an ordinary poem. Ideality, or the love of the 
beautiful, is a feeling which displays itself in the love 
for perfection. It may produce then that exquisite 
thrill which one feels on beholding a beautiful work 
of art. Ideality and Sublimity are the organs which 
cast an imaginative lustre upon all works of art, 



THE TRUE BASIS. 145 

whether they belong to literature, sculpture, or paint- 
ing. But Ideality and Sublimity could not produce 
these works alone; other organs must come in to sup- 
ply the material and execution. When we say that 
Ideality and Sublimity are necessary to a great orator, 
we do not mean that they are all that constitutes an 
orator, but that they are powerful elements in suc- 
cessful oratory. It is, therefore, unfair on the part of 
Bain to say that Phrenology offers the organ of Ideal- 
ity as an explanation of what constitutes an orator. 
No one organ, in general, is capable of explaining 
all that belongs to arts, so wide in their scope as the 
arts of poetry and oratory, but one or two organs 
may shape the direction or may color the whole bent 
of an individual's powers when employed in any 
one of these arts. To discover special fundamental 
powers for each of the fine-arts would only lead to 
the greatest piece of patchwork possible to be con- 
ceived or imagined, and it is strange that Bain should 
ever have entertained a notion that there might be a 
special sense of harmony for each of the fine-arts. A 
separate cerebral center which takes cognizance of 
proportion and harmony might be granted, but it 
would be under protest, for it might be proved by 
self-introspection that such a sense was an element 
in every innate power of the human constitution, or it 
might be said it was a purely intellectual element, 
perhaps a characteristic of the faculty of Comparison. 
But a general sense of harmony would not be objec- 
tionable, whereas a special sense for each of the fine- 
arts would be a far greater patchwork, more full of 
7 



I4 6 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

confused cross-divisions than ever emanated from a 
phrenologist's brain. If we examine this feeling of 
proportion and harmony displayed in the fine-arts, 
we can analyze its elements, and show that no matter 
what department, whether music, oratory, sculpture, 
painting, or drawing, they all have the same charac- 
teristics. The basis of all is nature. A work of art 
is out of proportion when it departs in contour from 
the natural object. If a painting depends upon shad- 
ows, light and heavy in combination, so does music 
depend upon alternate notes of different compass and 
volume. In a poem the versification, in order to be 
harmonious, must have a succession of accented and 
unaccented syllables, and the grand and fascinating 
melody of prose or verse recited by an actor or orator, 
depends upon a harmonious succession of emphasis 
and variation of voice — light and heavy, lively or 
solemn, gay or swelling, and all the variety of inflec- 
tion. But throughout all these, that which consti- 
tutes harmony is the correct portrait of nature. 

Now, I will leave it to the reader whether special 
fundamental powers must be established for each of 
the Fine-Arts or a general sense of harmony, or wheth- 
er the present phrenological analysis is sufficient to 
account for all the sensibilities experienced in the 
contemplation of the Fine-Arts; and if some more 
organs must be added to the phrenological scheme, 
we shall welcome them. But remember, in all his 
endeavors to produce a system of Phrenology by the 
self-introspective method only, Bain has not been al- 
ways successful. He leaves the Fine-Art question 



THE TRUE BASIS. j^y 

nearly as he found it, without adding much by way 
of demonstrated fact or clearer definition. He is 
more successful, however, in his discussion of a gen- 
eral faculty of Memory. He asserts, and George 
Combe favors the same idea, that there is a power 
of retentiveness which differs in individuals. This 
we have observed ourselves : there is a difference in the 
single element of memory, among school-boys, for in- 
stance. Boys apparently with the same endowments 
have good memories for almost everything. They 
may show special aptitudes for some studies, but 
they seem to be able to learn almost everything. 
These scholars are regarded as brilliant, and generally 
stand at the head of their class, and graduate with 
honor; but it often happens that they do not become 
remarkable in after-life. Whereas some students who 
have received low standard because they did not have 
this general memory, have far outstripped their com- 
panions in active life. There is also a difference which 
is of the same nature between men of genius and men 
of learning. There is a class of men who are not 
able to take ideas verbatim ; when they repeat it is 
colored more or less by thoughts and phraseology of 
their own. When asked to give the contents of a 
book they have been reading, they give the substance 
colored over by their own original reflections. The 
man of learning, on the other hand, seems almost in- 
capable of reproduction. He requires his commenta- 
ries, dictionaries, his book of synonymes, and reference 
books constantly beside him, and his production is a 
patchwork of other men's thoughts and cribbed quo- 



1 48 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

tations. Whether we can trace these differences to 
constitutional endowment is a question. The tem- 
peraments may have much to do with these differ- 
ences. Thus, for instance, the Motive Temperament 
is not so productive of originality of thought. Men 
of that development are more prone to acquire knowl- 
edge than to think for themselves. They are capable 
of following out the details of a plan devised by 
somebody else. They are men for the field, and be- 
come mere machines under the direction of superior 
minds. The Mental Temperament we know can ac- 
quire knowledge better than any other, and those 
students who show remarkable capacity for almost 
everything may have the Mental Temperament well 
developed. 

But it is to be regretted that Prof. Bain has not 
anywhere stated the exact phrenological make-up of 
the students who showed various powers, some more 
retentive than others. In the absence of the exact 
phrenological status of such cases, it would be idle to 
seek a solution. Perhaps the solution exists in some 
of the already known principles of Phrenology ; but 
as the cases have not come under phrenological in- 
spection, it is difficult to discuss the question. Bain 
is not explicit, but speaks of the students he observed 
as a whole. 1, for my part, in all my school career, 
have never met a class of students whose phrenolog- 
ical make-up was about the same for all, and yet 
some have displayed remarkable powers of retentive- 
ness, and others not. There are hardly two persons 
phrenologically alike in every respect. It would 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



149 



have been more satisfactory if Bain had given us a 
prospectus of the cases he had observed, then we 
would be able to judge and probably explain the 
seeming discrepancies. Still, however, I am persuaded 
that there is a characteristic power of retentiveness 
displayed by some which seems to be out of propor- 
tion to their development ; but the problem is not 
incapable of solution— it only requires a little patient 
investigation of the facts. With respect to genius 
and application, there is a vast difference between 
some minds. This difference may be accounted for 
in part by methods of study. There are two ways of 
acquiring truth : (1) By learning every fact or prin- 
ciple in detail. (2) By seizing upon the vital prin- 
ciples and working out the details for one's self. 

The first principle is characteristic of the man of 
learning, the second of the man of genius. Those 
who pursue the first method study with avidity ; they 
delight in acquiring other men's thoughts ; they em- 
ploy all their time in such acquisitions, and rarely 
stop to think or make original reflections on the mat- 
ter acquired. They are apt in class-room, and gain 
the esteem of their professors because they have ac- 
quired the information desired. These students are 
generally favorites with school committees and all the 
ornamental paraphernalia of colleges. 

Those who study after the second method do not 
display brilliancy in acquisition, but they are far more 
original. They know less, but are a great deal wiser 
than the first class. They are not popular with their 
professors, because they do not give the information 



i5o 



BOW TO STUDY CHARACTER : 0R t 



exactly as is wanted, but they oftentimes bring more 
honor upon the school when they enter upon public 
life than the others, because they have acquired the 
power of original thought. 

Now, it requires time for both of these processes ; 
it stands in reason, if a person gives himself up to the 
acquisition of other men's thoughts, he can not have 
time for original reflection ; so, on the other hand, if 
a person is engrossed with original reflections, he can 
not acquire the task before him. Students who be- 
long to the second class will be regarded as less 
brilliant than those of the first class ; whereas it is a 
brilliancy which differs in kind, not in degree. The 
second are really the most gifted after all. This 
would explain in part what Bain has noticed. And 
all that we have stated is borne out by fact. It is 
seldom that the same mind is capable of excelling in 
both fields ; there have been some noble exceptions, 
but they are few. The general law is, that if a per- 
son spends his time in acquiring other men's thoughts 
he will not have time to develop his own. 

The best way to study is to strike out a golden 
mean between these two methods. Study other 
men's thoughts only to get the principles, not the 
details ; to stimulate your own thought, not to slav- 
ishly copy theirs. This process may be longer than 
the other, but it will be more satisfactory in the end. 

The closing remarks by Prof. Bain on the Omis- 
sions of Phrenology are hardly applicable to that 
science as studied to-day. The assertion that Phre- 
nology makes no allowance for a person's acquisition, 



THE TR UE BA SIS. \ 5 1 

is not by any means correct. There is nothing 
inherent in the nature of the science prohibiting such 
an estimate. Indeed, phrenologists do assert that 
education does make a vast difference in the mental 
aptitudes of men. Educated faculties are always su- 
perior to uneducated. Nor is the power and activity 
gained by faculties, through training, beyond estima- 
tion, as Bain asserts. There are indications w r hich 
show pretty accurately whether certain mental pow- 
ers have been educated or not. 

Bain ought to remember in this connection the 
physiological fact, that training develops in two ways, 
by increasing the bulk of the muscle or organ exer- 
cised, or the quality of its texture. And we can esti- 
mate the probable extent of training by the increased 
size or texture of such muscles or organs. So it is 
with the training of cerebral centers, they increase in 
size or fineness of quality by exercise, and this increase 
is not altogether hidden from sight ; movements in 
the cerebrum affect the contour of the skull. The 
bony encasement directly over an organ swells out or 
becomes sharper in outline after years of exercise 
of that organ. We are seldom at a loss to select 
out those who have been educated from those who 
have not, by the sharpness of the general outline of 
skull and face. We have noticed students who have 
come into Harvard in their Freshman year, and have 
undertaken one line of studies — for instance, those 
sciences which call for the employment of the observ- 
ing faculties exclusively — that the organs called the 
knowing, or observing faculties, have perceptibly in- 



I 5 2 HOW TO STUD Y CHARA CTER ; OR, 

creased and become sharper in outline. But whatevei 
the reason may be, we can generally separate the edu- 
cated from the uneducated by their personal appear- 
ance. We could not, however, tell the extent or 
scope of one's acquisitions, but we ought not to ex- 
pect such a capacity from the science of Phrenology. 
Phrenology is not a sort of second sight, it is a real 
science guided by natural principles, and if she failed 
to measure accurately the extent of one's acquired 
knowledge, it would not be anything wonderful. No 
human science is possessed of such a power, neither 
metaphysical nor experimental philosophy ; how, then, 
should the absence of such a capacity be held out as 
an objection to Phrenology? All that Phrenology 
ought to be expected to do in such cases, would be 
to institute inquiries of the persons examined as to 
the extent of their education, and draw up an anal- 
ysis of their character, giving due allowance for such 
acquisitions. We must say in closing this subject, 
that we have followed Bain carefully, and noted 
each of the omissions in the science of Phrenology 
which he points out, without finding a single principle 
which would invalidate any of the vital truths of 
Phrenology. Phrenology as a science does not stand 
or fall upon what she has accepted or omitted. Omis- 
sions and hasty acceptances are characteristic of all 
sciences in their infancy. If she has received as 
proved one or more fundamental powers of the hu- 
man mind which may be proved as not fundamental, 
then she can give up such powers without detriment 
at all to her position as a science of the human mind. 



THE TRUE BASIS. 153 

If, on the other hand, she has omitted any fundamen- 
tal faculty from her diagnosis of character, such omis- 
sion is no more fatal to her than to any of her sister 
sciences ; she can fill up the vacancy when good proof 
is given that the omitted power is a real fundamental 
element. The attempt, therefore, to break down Phre- 
nology as a science of mind and character, by pointing 
out certain cross-divisions in her classification or 
omissions of fundamental powers, is an effort dis- 
playing extreme narrowness of conception, and un- 
worthy of a scientific and philosophic mind. 

bain's own system. 

We will now take up Bain's own system and see 
if he has succeeded any better in his analysis of mind 
and character than the phrenologists. He divides 
the mind into threefold divisions — emotion, volition, 
and intellect. We have no objection to take these 
as general conceptions, embracing under each fun- 
damental powers. His treatment of spontaneous 
energy, though it embraces much which comes under 
the discussion of the temperaments in phrenological 
works, yet presents many valuable thoughts worthy 
to be embraced in a book on the science of character. 
There are points where we would disagree with him, 
but we can not discuss them in detail. Bain, in an 
early part of his work on the study of character, ob- 
jected to what he called the clumsy device of the 
temperaments borrowed from Physiology by Phre- 
nology. We agree with him that the old classification 
of the temperaments was a rather cumbersome affair ; 
7* 



j 54 H0W T0 STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

but we regret to say that we can not accept his classi- 
fication, because not founded upon a physiological 
basis. Temperaments have relation to the physical 
body. They are names given to certain states of the 
physical constitution, and should therefore have a 
name affixed to them, indicating what particular 
state or condition of the constitution they signify. 
Now the case with Bain is this : he has no clearly 
defined temperament but one, and that one he calls 
the emotional temperament. Under the term "spon- 
taneous energy" he seems to include the muscular and 
mental systems, although he nowhere explicitly calls 
them temperaments. We will therefore refrain from 
any criticism on his subject of spontaneous energy. 
But when Bain denominates a certain state or condi- 
tion of constitution by the name emotional tempera- 
ment, he commits a very negligent and unscientific 
error in scientific classification. Temperaments are 
certain states or conditions of the. body, as I have 
said before, and therefore should have a physical 
basis. The various organs of the human body should 
be made the basis, and not any emotional product of 
these organs. There are three grand divisions of the 
human constitution — nerves and brain matter, bones 
and muscles, stomach and lungs. The preponderance 
of one or more of these organs shapes the tempera- 
ment. Thus a person in whom the bones and mus- 
cles predominate will have a different build or con- 
stitution from one whose lungs or brain are in the 
ascendant. A classification of temperaments made 
on the actual constituents of the physical body is far 



THE TRUE BASIS. 155 

more accurate than one made upon any product of 
these constituents ; so the classification of the tem- 
peraments, as set forth by later phrenologists, is far 
more accurate than that which Bain sets forth. The 
temperament which Professor Bain calls the emotional 
temperament, is far better classified under the name 
vital. Emotion is only a product of temperament, 
and is not a physical element of the constitution, and, 
in fact, it might be said that emotion belonged in a 
certain measure to all the temperaments — to the 
mental and motive. The vital is the more emotional 
temperament, not because there is a physical element 
of emotion in it, but because the conditions are more 
favorable to the development of emotion. The lack 
of accuracy and definite statement on account of this 
unfortunate classification on the part of Bain is per- 
ceptible throughout his whole chapter on the emo- 
tional temperament. He is treating a characteristic 
of a temperament as a temperament itself, and hence 
he fails to grasp all that should be included under a 
temperament. 

His chapter on special emotions or tastes will 
now occupy us. All his remarks on the pleasures 
of muscular exercise, sex, and organic sensibility are 
well worthy of consideration ; so also are those on 
taste, smell, touch, hearing, and sight. 

Under the head of special emotions Bain discusses 
what he considers an elementary fundamental power 
of the human mind under the designation of tender 
emotion. In an earlier part of his book he is dis- 
posed to regard Adhesiveness, Philoprogenitiveness, 



I 56 HOW TO STUDY CHA RA CTER ; OR, 

Benevolence, and even part of the function of Ama- 
tiveness as included under the designation, tender 
emotion, as one distinct innate faculty of the consti- 
tution. If Bain had merely suggested the term ten- 
der emotion as a sort of generic term under which 
we could group the functions of all these organs for 
convenience of statement, because they may be 
shown to possess one element in common, namely, 
tender affection, we should be disposed to adopt the 
term ; but to group together three or more distinct 
functions of the mind under such a loose, vague, and 
general concept as tender emotion, and call it a single 
innate faculty, is hardly compatible with accurate 
classification of philosophy or science, and least of all 
is it germane to the exact demands of phrenological 
classification. When phrenologists arranged and 
perfected their nomenclature, they sought to assign 
names to each innate power designative of their 
function. In all their classification, as it appeared 
perfected by George Combe and others, there is not 
to be found so vague and general a term as that em- 
ployed by Bain, " tender emotion." To take a world- 
wide term like emotion and circumscribe its meaning 
by another still more wide in its application, is a piece 
of patchwork which Phrenology has not been guilty 
of. Take these terms as they present themselves, and 
what meaning do they convey ? Emotion, in the first 
place, is a general concept ; it is like the terms mem- 
ory, conception, perception (which, by the way, the 
self-introspective school also kindly supplied as funda- 
mental powers), capable of being resolved into innu- 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



157 



merable kinds of emotion. There is the emotion 
of Amativeness, Friendship, Veneration, Self-esteem, 
Approbation, Hope, etc. We have a distinct idea of 
an emotion which springs from the function of a defi- 
nite organ like Philoprogenitiveness or Amativeness ; 
but what in the name of philosophical classification does 
the term tender emotion convey? There is nothing 
specific about the term at all. The quality of tender- 
ness may enter as an element into any one of the 
functions of the primitive organs. There is even an 
element, tenderness, in Ideality — a beautiful picture 
will awaken a tender feeling ; and Bain must admit 
that in the function of his organ of Sympathy there 
is an element of tenderness. To circumscribe the field 
of affections by such a wide, loose term as tender emo- 
tion is a gross error in classification, unpardonable in a 
philosopher like Bain, who has laboriously endeavored 
to pull down the phrenological classification. This term 
of Bain's is not an advance in accuracy of statement, 
but is rather a retrogression ; it is a going back to the 
vague generalities of the old metaphysical school. 
What we want in a diagnosis of character is individ- 
ual terms of specific application. Nobody in analyz- 
ing character could tell by the term tender emotion 
whether the person was affectionate toward his wife, 
children, friends, humanity, or an inanimate object. 

The distinct elements of character which Bain has 
grouped under this vague term are of such importance 
that a correct and accurate exposition of a person's 
character could not be given without a degree of cir- 
cumlocution entirely unnecessary ; and, besides, if 



^8 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

these powers are but one faculty, by what method 
shall we ascertain whether a person is philanthropic, 
amative, parental, conjugal, or social? Five distinct 
types of character are necessarily cut off from all 
adequate means of ascertainment, if Bain is correct. 
In self-conscious reflection there may be an element 
which joins all these functions — an element, for in- 
stance, of tender emotion ; but are there not separate 
individual characteristic elements in each which colors 
the emotion and makes each an innate power? Surely 
the feeling stirred up by the love for children is dif- 
ferent from the amative, the benevolent, or the social 
feeling. When I love my friend, I am not experienc- 
ing my love for children ; and when I love my wife, I 
have not a feeling of sociability merely. Nor can 
association, reciprocal relation, or any such inventions 
of the metaphysical school account for the innate 
characteristic element which separates each of these 
emotions. The selfish hope of gaining benefit may 
make men cling to each other in their business rela- 
tions, but does this produce friendship-love, pure and 
simple ? Does it not often happen that those whom 
we love can render us no assistance at all ? When a 
friend is dead, does the survivor who loved him feel 
a thrill of joy whenever his name is mentioned because 
he will gain some benefit from him ? Bain's concep- 
tion of reciprocal relation may account for a sort of 
business friendship, but never for that undying adher- 
ence to friends through weal or woe. The poem called 
" Palemon and Arcite " could never have been pro- 
duced if its author had entertained the same low 



THE TRUE BASIS. 159 

estimate of friendship which Bain entertains ; and the 
beautiful description of Saul and Jonathan, who were 
lovely and pleasant in their lives and in death they 
were not divided, would utterly lose its charm and 
beauty if we could entertain for a moment that their 
love for each other was simply one of mutual benefit. 
Self-disinterested love of friends is a noble senti- 
ment in our constitution, and has displayed itself in 
all ages. History supplies many examples. When 
Flora Macdonald accompanied the exiled Prince 
Charles Stuart through all his painful marches and 
tenderly watched him amid dangers and suffering, 
was she gaining anything as reward for all her devo- 
tion* to a fallen cause? The friendship element is 
different from the benevolent. In the first there is 
a feeling of joy and loyalty, in the second of pity 
merely. I love my friend with a gladsome heart, but 
pity a suffering human being with a thrill of sadness. 
A mother loves her children with a sort of parental 
pride ; there is no element of pity, it is a feeling of 
joy and exultation. Philoprogenitiveness I have dis- 
cussed before, and therefore I will not dwell upon it. 
Benevolence we proved to be an innate power and 
capable of performing all the functions characteristic 
of Bain's organ of Sympathy. Adhesiveness there is 
every reason, even by the self-introspective method, 
for regarding as a distinct power of the mind. Dis- 
interested love for one in preference to all is an ele- 
ment in Adhesiveness. Benevolence loves all, and 
more especially the unfortunate. Adhesiveness is a 
factor, but not a product of sociability. When we 



l6o BOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

consider observed facts according to phrenological in- 
vestigation, Bain's organ of tender emotion separates 
itself into the distinct functions of Adhesiveness, 
Philoprogenitiveness, and Benevolence. There is 
every reason for supposing these are distinct facul- 
ties, because they are found developed in different 
degrees in different persons. Cases are reported 
where persons on the death of their friend have re- 
fused to be comforted, and have finally died with 
grief at the loss. Cases of disinterested friendship 
are numerous. 

Under the term Irascibility, Bain describes the 
essential function of the phrenological organ of De- 
structiveness, and regards the faculty as innate. 
There is no necessity to dwell upon it. 

CONCESSIONS OF BAIN. 

Professor Bain in his book on the " Study of Char- 
acter " makes many concessions to Phrenology which 
are highly creditable to that science. Some of these 
we will briefly state : 

(i). " The phrenologists proved by an accumulation 
of unquestionable evidence the real connection exist- 
ing between brain and mind. All other systems of 
investigating the mind, metaphysical, physiological, 
and anatomical, having failed to show the relation- 
ship existing between natural organs and the mind." 

(2). " They brought into prominence, as an important 
element of ascertaining the power of any given func- 
tion of the mind, the doctrine that size, all other 



THE TRUE BASIS. x 6l 

things being equal, is the measure of power which 
they established by innumerable proofs." 

(3). "All theorists previous to Phrenology could 
not prove their principles by appeals to observed 
facts ; they could not show a relationship existing 
between cerebral organs and the function of the ele- 
mentary powers they had analyzed in their own con- 
sciousness. Phrenology not only showed herself 
capable of doing this, but she became the first and 
only science of character." * 

The value of cerebral development, as indicating 
the seat of the faculties of mind, is acknowledged by 
Bain, and for this reason he is willing to regard Phre- 
nology as not only a science and art of character, but 
also a science of mind. This ought to be a sufficient 
answer to those who maintain that Phrenology is but 
an art. If a philosopher of such high reputation as 
Professor Bain, after an extensive and critical survey 
of Phrenology, makes such a concession, it ought 
surely to weigh as strong evidence in the minds of 
those who are prejudiced against Phrenology. 

(4). " If it can be proved that each fundamental 
power in the human constitution has it own compart- 
ment or cerebral center in the brain, then such funda- 
mental powers are proved to be innate beyond dis- 
pute." f 

Now, is not this a remarkable concession ? It 
grants the whole position of Phrenology, but I am 
sorry to say that Bain loses sight of this principle, 



* Bain's " Study of Character." t Ibid, 



l§2 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

the truth of which he admits in the subsequent dis- 
cussion of the phrenological organs. 

(5). "The phrenological analysis obtained by its 
method of investigation revolutionized the analysis 
of mind as then advocated by philosophy." 

(6). " If Phrenology is true, she has brought to a 
rapid and certain conclusion the tedious and unpro- 
ductive labors of the other inquirers. Upon a method 
of a diagnosis they have built a science of character, 
and on that a science of mind." 

(7). " It may be admitted that the connection thus 
shown to exist between the size of a certain part of 
the skull, and an excessive manifestation (say) of fear, 
might be usefully employed in aiding us to regulate 
our intercourse with our fellow-men, to select indi- 
viduals for particular offices, to choose professions for 
young people, to shape appropriately our instructions 
and discipline in the education of children, and, in a 
word, to appreciate the character of both ourselves 
and others."* 

MR. SAMUEL BAILEY AS QUOTED BY BAIN. 
Bailey, as quoted by Bain, proceeds to narrow the 
province of Phrenology to the simple method of in- 
specting the brain. The classification of the faculties 
and the description of their various states of activity 
he regards as not within the province of Phrenology, 
but of the self-introspective school. But this is 
entirely unwarrantable; there is no reason why a 
peculiarity of a science should be seized upon as the 

* Bain's " Study of Character." 



THE TRUE BASIS. 163 

only principle of that science. When facts are ob- 
served, the human mind has the privilege to reflect 
upon them, and this privilege we claim does not be- 
long to any school of philosophy whatever. That 
Bailey (and Bain agrees with him) should strip Phre- 
nology of the power of reflecting, weighing, and 
judging the evidence presented by the observation 
and senses, has no real ground of procedure, except 
the manifest zeal of Bailey to make out as good a 
field as possible for the metaphysical school. Phre- 
nologists do not ignore the value of the reflective 
faculties in the investigation of truth. They em- 
ployed them in originating the terms and definitions 
of the phrenological classification, and also in sifting 
the evidence presented to them by experiment and 
observation. What they protested against was not 
the self-introspective or metaphysical process of in- 
vestigating mind when founded upon facts presented 
by observation, but a peculiar doctrine emphasized 
by that school that the mind could only be studied 
by self-introspection. They claimed that mental phe- 
nomena were subject to observation as well as reflec- 
tion. The phrenological school, so far from ignoring 
self-conscious investigation, oftentimes makes use of 
its methods. 

(8). " Phrenology emphasized the importance of 
studying the nervous structure in connection with 
mental characteristics. It brought to light many 
curious facts in human nature, and showed by numer- 
ous examples that there are original differences in the 
constitutional qualities of individuals and races." 



1 64 HOW TO STUD Y CHAR A CTER ; OR, 

(9). " Although it is true all these facts might have 
been observed without reference to the brain, or its 
configuration, or its exterior covering, still to Phre- 
nology, as actually prosecuted, must be awarded the 
merit of strongly directing the attention to many of 
them, and also of hastening, confirming, and dissemi- 
nating views regarding the constitution of human na- 
ture, which, notwithstanding they were once warmly 
contested, and are yet not universally received, the 
philosophical observer, without such assistance, would 
doubtless have finally reached."* 

This last statement is very questionable. The 
philosophic mind has not made much advance in 
analyzing the elementary or innate powers of the 
human constitution even since the days of Gall. 
The analysis of mind by modern schools of thought, 
while it embraces many of the faculties as found in 
phrenological classification, has still numerous ele- 
ments in it which are not distinct fundamental 
powers, but simply general conceptions ; in fact, the 
self-introspective school has displayed remarkable 
skill in ascertaining general terms or processes of the 
mind, but it has failed to see the individual ele- 
ments underlying these general terms. Still, any sys- 
tem claiming to be a complete science of the mind 
can not dispense with the self-introspective method. 
There are laws, habits, relations, etc., which, while 
they do not create innate powers, nevertheless ex- 
plain how the fundamental powers act. Such laws 



* Bain's " Study of Character.' 



THE TRUE BASIS. 165 

as association, habit, and most important of all, Bain's 
three general processes of the mind, called by him 
Discrimination, Retentiveness, and Similarity, ought 
to be embodied in the science of mind, as throwing 
light upon the general activity of the separate organs. 
There is no reason why Phrenology should not per- 
fect herself by drawing not only from psychology, but 
also from physiology and experimental philosophy, 
demonstrated principles relative to the human mind. 

When Phrenology first began her labors, she pre- 
sented the most liberal field of investigation possible 
at the time, nor has she receded in modern times 
from that all-embracing spirit. Her investigations 
are still conducted upon the broad principles of 
psychology, physiology, and physiognomy. The only 
difference is this : the science of mind, like all other 
sciences, has branched out into many departments. 
Men of special talent rule each of these departments. 
There are great scholars in the psychological and also 
in the experimental schools. These schools, in their 
ignorance of phrenological principles, sometimes pre- 
sent a hostile front to Phrenology ; but, after all, if 
Phrenology is true to the principles of her great 
founders, she can receive truth from all of these 
schools without losing a particle of honor. As the 
case now stands, she is still the only science of the 
mind which makes an approximate endeavor to em- 
brace the three great elements of investigation, the 
triad of all sciences : experiment, observation, and re- 
flection. 

But the most important concession made by Pro- 



l66 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

fessor Bain to Phrenology is expressed in a foot-note 
on page 298 of his book on the " Study of Char- 
acter." This foot-note is the more valuable be- 
cause it is not given as a concession, but as a remark. 
Bain has been discussing at considerable length the 
intellectual element of disinterestedness, and finds 
himself involved in a rather difficult situation. The 
most subtile distinctions have been made by him 
without arriving at any definite conclusion, and it 
would seem in a fit of perplexity he subjoins the fol- 
lowing note : "In a former chapter I conceded to 
Phrenology the likelihood of regarding the tender- 
hearted disposition, when generalized to the utmost, 
as an ultimate fact of the constitution, for which a 
local habitation might reasonably be looked for in the 
brain. In a matter where the psychological analysis is 
subtile and obscure, and where the sentiment is one of 
great prominence in the mind, the well-established con- 
currence of a cerebral development, with instances of 
the quality in a high degree, ought not to be rashly set 
aside." 

These words sound like a virtual surrender of the 
whole point at issue. In the first part of his book, 
Bain strongly asserts that the self-conscious method 
of investigation is capable in itself of supplying a 
complete and perfect analysis of the human mind ; 
and he declares emphatically that he will not subject 
himself to a process of investigation so laborious as 
that of Phrenology, however correct it may be. What 
does he mean now by this foot-note ? It occurs al- 
most at the close of his book, after he has waded 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



6/ 



through a long, painful, metaphysical discussion of 
what are and what are not primitive functions. Has 
he indeed discovered the insufficiency of the self-con- 
scious method to make a clear and definite analysis 
of the human mind, or does he wish to escape from 
its subtilty and obscurity by an appeal to observed 
facts? Both motives are evident from a considera- 
tion of the meaning of the note. Bain has, indeed, 
reached the ultima thule of the metaphysical school ; 
he has experienced its perplexities, and volunteers a 
piece of solid advice to his metaphysical brethren : 
u In a matter where the psychological analysis is sub- 
tile and obscure, and where the sentiment is one of 
great prominence in the mind." Mark this : Bain ac- 
knowledges that the psychological analysis may be 
subtile and obscure, even where the sentiment dis- 
cussed is one of great prominence in the mind. Was 
there ever an acknowledgment so crushingly and over- 
whelmingly negative of any method of investigation ? 
If the psychological analysis is obscure even where 
there is light, how utterly muddy it must be where 
there is no light. If the self-introspective method 
has reached a point where subtilty and obscurity 
stay all further progress, even when the subject of 
its investigation is not only present, but of great 
prominence, how, in the name of common-sense, can 
it lay claim to be an efficient process in the closer 
states of analysis ? But Bain does not stop here ; he 
presents a method of escape from this obscurity ; and 
what do you think that method is ? Why, when the 
psychological (Bain's own method) has failed you are 



1 68 HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER ; OR, 

to employ Gall's method, the phrenological method. 
Here are his very words : " In such cases the well- 
established concurrence of a cerebral development, 
with instances of the quality in a high degree, ought 
not to be rashly set aside." Now, there are two great 
aspects of this admission which are peculiarly inter- 
esting and remarkable. In the first place, the meta- 
physical method may become obscure, — there are 
truths of analysis which it can not fathom ; and 
secondly, the phrenological system of investigation, 
previously condemned as an insufficient method, is 
now recommended, not only as a guide to analysis, 
but as capable of deciding the most obscure and deli- 
cate questions in the analysis of the mind. Was there 
ever such a surrender of principles involved ? Bain, 
has, indeed, forgotten his resolution to evolve a 
mental analysis from the depths of the metaphysical 
consciousness, and begins to see a gleam of hope 
shining through the labyrinth of perplexing subtil- 
ties, and that ray is the discarded phrenological 
method of investigation. Now, it is a just inference, 
from the concession made in this note of Professor 
Bain, that if the phrenological method of investigat- 
ing the mind can be employed successfully to estab- 
lish obscure points of analysis, it ought to be even 
more successful where there is no obscurity. 

It may be thought that in this essay I should meet 
the various objections to Phrenology which from time 
to time have been urged against it, but this would be 
an endless task. The objections against this science 
generally spring from those who are ignorant of its 



THE TRUE BASIS. 169 

principles or who have become acquainted with Phre- 
nology through its opponents and have therefore 
obtained a stock of misrepresentations, false quota- 
tions, and hackneyed, puerile, and contemptible ob- 
jections. I can not answer such objections in detail ; 
suffice it to say, that the founders of Phrenology were 
perfectly capable of looking out for all the little side 
issues of the science. Let no one suppose, however, 
that I have not seen the objections urged against 
Phrenology by such men as Dalton, Carpenter, -Bas- 
tian, and Lewes — the objections of these men are all 
easily met ; some of them are the product of sheer 
ignorance or mere misrepresentation. Dalton has 
withdrawn his objection. Sir William Hamilton is 
supposed to have annihilated Phrenology. Well, I 
have no doubt but that Sir William would have an- 
nihilated Phrenology if he could, but nevertheless 
Hamilton is dead and Phrenology is still alive, and I 
venture to say that all the William Hamiltons that 
ever lived could not annihilate Phrenology. It is not 
necessary to discuss Hamilton's objections, since the 
points at issue between the phrenologists and Hamil- 
ton were long ago decided in favor of the former by 
modern physiology and anatomy. 

CONCLUSION. 

The object of this essay has been to discover, if 
possible, the true basis for a science of Mind and 
Character. We laid down as prerequisites, in inves- 
tigating the mind, certain definite principles which 
we considered capable of embracing man's entire 
8 



iy HOW TO STUDY CHARACTER; OR, 

constitution. We examined the claims of the three 
great branches of mental science — Metaphysics, now 
called Psychology (perhaps, because under its old 
name it received so many wounds from Phrenology 
that it is wisdom to beget, at least, a new name), 
Experimental Philosophy, and Phrenology. After a 
careful consideration of the claims of each, we gave 
in our adherence to Phrenology — not because we con- 
sider that science complete, not because there are no 
imperfections in her classification, not because she 
has made an exhaustive analysis of mind and charac- 
ter, or has accomplished a complete enumeration of 
all the mental processes, general and specific, but be- 
cause she is really the only science which has fulfilled, 
as far as possible, the principles which we regard as 
fundamental to a science of mind and character. We 
are not blind to the valuable light thrown upon the 
mind by the modern school of psychology, and should 
strongly urge upon phrenologists the necessity of in- 
corporating in their science of mind what is clearly 
demonstrated by this school. It is a revelation of 
history, no matter how inconceivable it may be to 
the minds of some, that Phrenology has excelled 
psychology even in that for which the latter always 
prided herself — the capacity to make close, hair-split- 
ting distinctions. The establishment of primitive 
powers — and psychology acknowledges many of those 
powers to be, indeed, innate in the constitution — was 
chiefly the work of Phrenology. The Scottish school 
of metaphysics, comprising such men as Dugald 
Stewart and Brown, did make some approach toward 



— 



THE TRUE BASIS. ^1 

establishing primitive faculties, but their work in this 
direction bears no comparison to the achievements 
of Phrenology. The psychological school, on the 
other hand, has shown a power of analysis, more 
especially since the advent of Phrenology, of the gen- 
eral processes of mind. Their laws of association, 
habit, and more especially Bain's intellectual proc- 
esses called Discrimination, Retentiveness, and Simi- 
larity, throw much light upon the subject of how the 
individual organs act, but they do not reveal primi- 
tive functions. It is a curious fact that the meta- 
physical faculty has made discoveries almost exclu- 
sively in the generalizing domain, not in the specific. 
In its scope of operation, it seems better able to de- 
tect the general or universal rather than the specific 
or individual. Observation and experiment, on the 
other hand, take hold of the individual ; hence all 
sciences have approached perfection in details in pro- 
portion as they have subjected themselves to obser- 
vation or experiment. The phrenological school, on 
the other hand, has employed both observation, ex- 
periment, and psychology, and hence her great success 
in analyzing the mind and character. While Phre- 
nology keeps in view the three grand methods of 
studying man — psychological, physiological, and physi- 
ognomical — she will continue to be the true basis for 
the science of mind and character. There can be no 
narrowness in her development, for she is at liberty 
to embrace truth from every region of investigation. 
Her founders, while holding tenaciously to all that was 
peculiar to her, yet seized as her legitimate property 



1 72 HOW TO STUD Y CHARA CTER ; OR, 

all that was proven by the metaphysical or experi- 
mental methods. If her supporters continue to do 
the same, there can be no fears for the future of 
Phrenology. A science so wide in its scope is bound 
to command attention, if not of specialists, at least of 
the intelligent public. 

In the building up of a complete science of mind, 
Phrenology may have to give up some things, and she 
may have to embrace truths from the psychological 
and experimental schools, but she will not lose her dis- 
tinctive character. Suppose, for instance, that the 
metaphysical school supplies her with general terms 
and descriptions of mental processes which are mat- 
ters of self-introspection, she will only be enriched 
by the process ; and suppose that the experimental 
school supplies a more minute knowledge of brain 
structure, such knowledge can not possibly eclipse 
her honor. The investigations carried on by this 
school at the present time into the structure of the 
individual cells composing the convolutions of the 
brain, which are the seats of the functions discovered 
by Phrenology, can not overthrow Phrenology, but 
will give a more minute knowledge of the cerebral 
structure. If by experiment it can be proved that 
each cell responds to a certain distinct feeling, and 
that cells of the same or generic feelings are grouped 
together in bunches or centers, this would be but a 
confirmation of the great truth promulgated by Phre- 
nology, that mental functions depend upon cerebral 
centers for their manifestation. Now, after these 
cells are grouped together in convolutions, clearly 



THE TRUE BASIS. 



173 



the only method of observing them in the human 
mind is by the phrenological method. The only way 
to make a practical application of an analysis of the 
human mind to acquire a knowledge of character, is 
by the phrenological method. After the last item 
has been added to the knowledge of brain or body 
by the psychological or experimental school, the only 
way to apply this perfected knowledge to the human 
subject, in order to build up a science of character, 
is by the phrenological method, and if that method 
proves a failure, then we can never hope to behold a 
science of character. But there is nothing to indi- 
cate a failure on the part of Phrenology ; so far, she 
is the only science of character, and her history in 
that respect is one of triumph. That the science of 
mind and character may soon reach its perfection is 
my earnest wish. 



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By E. 



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HOW TO 

STUDY CHARACTER; 



OR, 



THE TRUE BASIS 



FOR 



THE SCIENCE OF MIND 



INCLUDING A REVIEW OF 



ALEXANDER BAIN'S CRITICISM OF THE PHRENOLOGICAL 
SYSTEM. 



BY / 
V 
THOMAS A. HYDE. 



NEW YORK: 
FOWLER & WELLS CO., PUBLISHERS, 

753 BROADWAY. 



" It ib an Illustrated Cyclopedia.' 



HEW 




mm m gimmwh, 

As manifested in Temperament and External Forms, and especially 
in the Human Face Divine. 

By f*. R. WELLS, Editob Phrenological Journal. 

Large 12mo, 763 pp. With more than 1,000 Engravings, 

Illustrating Physiognomy, Anatomy, Physiology, Ethnology, Phrenol- 
ogy, and Natural History, 



A comprehensive, thorough, and practical Work, in which all that is 
"^ Known on the subject treated is Systematized, Explained, Illustrated, and Applied. 
Physiognomy is here shown to be no mere fanciful speculation, but a consistent and well- 
considered system of Character-reading, based on the established truths of Physiology 
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Previous Systems given, Including 
those of all ancient and modern writers. 



General Principles of Physiognomy, 
or the Philological laws on which charac- 
ter-reading is and must be based. 

Temperaments.— The Ancient Doc- 
trines — Spurzheim's Description — The 
New Classification now in use here. 

Practical Physiognomy. — General 
Forms of Faces— The Eyes, the Mouth, 
the Nose, the Chin, the Jaws and Teeth, 
the Cheeks, the Forehead, the Hair anc 
Beard, the Complexion, the Neck and 
Bars, the Hands and Feet, the Voice, the 
Walk, the Laugh, the Mode of Shaking 
Hands, Dress, etc., with illustrations. 

Bthnology.— The Races, Including the 
Caucasian, the North American Indians, 
the Mongolian, the Malay, and the African, 
with their numerous subdi visions : also 
Nationa' Tvues. each illustrated. 



to the Training of Children, to Personal 
Improvement, to Business, to Insanity and 
Idiocy, to Health and Disease, to Classes 
and Professions, to Personal Improvement, 
and to Character-Reading generally. Util- 
ity of Physiognomy, Self-Improvement. 

Animal Types. — Grsdes of Intelli- 
gence, Instinct and Reason 
Heads and Animal Types among Men. 

Grapliomancy .— Character revealed in 
Hand- writing, with Specimens — Palmistry. 
" Line of Life" in the human hand. 

Character- Heading. — More than a 
hundred noted Men and Women introduc- 
ed—What Physiognomy says of them. 

The Great Secret.— Row to be Healthy 
and How to be Beautiful— Mental Cosmet- 
ics— very interesting, very useful. 

Aristotle and St. Ptul.—A Model 
Head— Views of Life — DluHtratlve Anec- 
dotes—Detecting a Rogue by his Face. 



No one am read this Book without Interest, without real profit "Knowledge I* 
power," and this is emphatically true of a knowledge of men— of human character. He 
who has it is " master of the situation ;" and anybody may have it who will, and And in 
it the " secret of success" and the road to the largest personal improvement 

Price, in one large Volume, of nearly 800 pagee, and more than 1,000 engravings, on 
tooed paper, handsomely bound in embossed muslin, $6 ; in heavy calf, marblea edges, 
f8 ; Tui ?oy morocco, full gilt $10. Agents may do well to canvass for this work. Free 
by poet Tease address. Fowler & Wells Co., 753 Broadway, New York. 



1884 



Thyself." 




Specially Devoted to the "Science of Man.** Contains Phrenology 
and Physiognomy, with all the Signs of Character, and how to read 
them ;" Ethnology, or the Natural History of Man in all his relations 
to Lifo; Practical Articles on Physiology, Diet, Exercise and the 
Laws of Life and Health. Portraits, Sketches and Biographies of the 
loading Men and Women of the World, are important features. 
Much general and useful information on the leading topics of the day is 
given. It is intended to he the most interesting and instructive Pictorial 
Family Magazine Published. Subscriptions may commence now. 

Few works will better repay perusal la the family than this rich storehouse of Instruc- 
tion and entertainment.— N. T. Tribune. It grows In Variety and Value. Eve. Post. 

m 

Terms.— A New Volume, the 76th commences with the Jan. Number. Pub- 
lished Monthly, In octavo form, at fi a year, in advance. Sample numbers sent by first 
post, JOcte. Clubs of ten or more, $1 .60 each per copy, and an extra copy to agent. 

We are now offering the most liberal premiums ever given for dobs, for 1883- 
■tamp* tor list. Address, EOWLEK A WELLS, ?o3 Broadway, New York. 






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TO THE 



FHBENOLOeiGAL JOURNAL. 

This publication is widely known in America and Europe, having been before the read- 
ing world forty years, and occupying a place in literature exclusively its own, viz : the itudv 
of Human Nature in all its phases, including Phrenology, Physiognomy, Ethnology, Physi- 
ology, etc., together with the '* Science of Health," and no expense will be spared to make 
it the best publication for general circulation, tending always to make men better physically, 
mentally, and morally. Parents should read the Journal that they may better know how to 
govern and train their children. To each subscriber is given 

THE PHRENOLOGICAL BUST. 

This bust is made of Plaster of Paris, and so lettered as to show the exact location of 
each of the Phrenological Organs. The head is nearly life-size, and very ornamental, de- 
serving a place on the center-table or mantel, in parlor, office, or .study, and until recently 
has sold for $2.00. This, with the illustrated key which accompanies each Bust, and the 
articles published in the Journal on "Practical Phrenology," will enable the reader to 
become a successful student of Human Nature. One of these heads should be in the hands 
of all who would know * How to Rkad Character." 

Te:C\m.S.— The Journal is now published at $2.00 a year (having been reduced 
from $3.00), single numbers 20 cjRnts. When the Premiums are sent, 25 cents extra must 
be received with each subscription to pay postage on the Journal and the expense of boxing 
and packing the Bust, which will be sent by express, or >«o. a, a smaller size, will be sent by 
mail, post -paid. To those who have the Bust, or prefer it, we will send the Book Premium. 

Send amount in P. O. Orders, Drafts on New York, or in Registered Letters. Postage- 
stamps will be received. -jAgknts Wanted. Send 10 cents for specimen N umber, Premium 
List, etc <* w 

Address FOWLER & WELLS CO., Publishers, 

753 Broadway, New York. 



MAR 11 1949 



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